and have since moved on into the next existence.This book is dedicated to those people who have had the
most inﬂuence in my life. the loves of
my life. my best friends and fellow Tar-babies.
. who lift me up daily from the rigors of work and
my own inadequacies.
who helped form a literary and scholarly fellowship early in
my life. whose presence in my life as a daughter
has helped me to grow and learn. and those whom I love the most:
To Boo and Tar.
To my wife Sonja and daughter Noëlle. whom I love deeply and
continue to be exceptionally proud of.
To Crystal. to celebrate every moment of every
day as precious and wonderful with their smiles and their
laughter.

Table of Contents
“Tolkien is the Wind and the Way”: The Educational Value of
Tolkien-Inspired World Music
AMY H. and More Music
DAVID BRATMAN
140
Performance Art in a Tunnel: A Musical Sub-Creator in the
Tradition of Tolkien
ANTHONY S. STURGIS
126
Liquid Tolkien: Music. Middle-earth. BURDGE
171
Contributors
Index
201
205
viii
. Tolkien.

a discovery not unlike many others that happened during my
teenage years and has progressively and inevitably led to advanced education. something that many Tolkien enthusiasts
have dreamed of but have never been able to do. at
Marquette University in Milwaukee. including his gravesite and his various homes. visiting all of the
sites associated with Tolkien.
As I examined the materials in the Bodleian. Not only did I get to touch and study manuscripts. and the Bodleian Library
at the University of Oxford in England. with special reference to the ‘Battle of Maldon’ and its allitera-
1
. I received a grant from the University of Nevada. but I got to explore the city of Oxford as well. Having gone through
the extensive process of applying for a reader’s pass. I came across Tolkien’s
various drafts of a lecture entitled “The Tradition of Versiﬁcation in Old
English. Having visited the Marquette archives in
1981 as an undergraduate student writing an honors religion paper on
Tolkien’s views regarding subcreation. to explore writing a book on musical allusions in Tolkien’s works. It is the culmination of thirty years of personal
interest. I can say that my
visit was truly enlightening.
In 2003. Wisconsin. Las Vegas. and ultimately to this book. then scheduling my
visit with the librarian in charge of the Tolkien archives. notes. But the ultimate experience was my three-week visit to the
Bodleian Library in April 2003. career directions and choices. and various miscellanea that Tolkien himself
wrote.
to visit the two major archives containing Tolkien-related materials.Introduction
Bradford Lee Eden
It is with great pleasure that I offer up this book of essays to Tolkien
scholars and enthusiasts. lectures. it was a wonderful experience to go
back again a little older and more knowledgeable and re-examine Tolkien’s
materials.

incorporating music into the creation and ultimately the history of that fascinating world that all of us have come to know and love. Tolkien himself could be construed as a “scholar
turned minstrel.
I ﬁrst wrote about these musical allusions in the chapter “The Music
of the Spheres: Relationships between Tolkien’s Silmarillion and Medieval
Cosmological and Religious Theory” in the book Tolkien the Medievalist
(edited by Jane Chance. they are the embodiment of all that is beautiful and good.” All three versions of this lecture refer to some type of musical allusion in their introductions. one where the eventual decay
or debasement of the original creation music by time and space would
occur. along with the power associated with that music? And when one
really looks at Middle-earth. 2004). and that Tolkien often interchanged and wove his stories and his
characters into and around musical allusions. less formal manner than earlier poetry. many others have
commented on the similarities between music and speech in Tolkien’s
works. and how Tolkien would refer to the
“Battle of Maldon” poet in this way. Was all of this a conscious
or a subconscious effort on Tolkien’s part? Did he base his entire mythology on the “music of the spheres” concept. Since then.
I noticed the close relationships between music and language early in
2
. Routledge.” a modern-day academic whose love and power of
storytelling has brought to life an entire mythology that has captured the
imagination of young and old alike. indicating that the “Battle of Maldon” is recorded in a more hasty.Introduction
tion. the Elves are the music. and they represent the original
music of creation throughout Middle-earth’s history. one who felt more comfortable living in the medieval
world and its languages than in this modern world. In a twist of his own
words from this draft. Tolkien compares the “Battle of Maldon”
poet with other surviving writings of the time. and that his love of languages and mythology helped to sing or compose Middle-earth into existence. One can almost imagine Tolkien
thinking of himself in this way. And that is
what he did. Tolkien often referred to himself as
a man out of his time. and Tolkien muses on the recorder/writer of
the “Battle of Maldon” poem. Tolkien indicates that this poem has been more or less
constructed by a “minstrel turned scholar. yet in the process
becoming an historical observer for those reading the surviving manuscripts. I was struck by this reference. given the close analogy between the
sounds of speech and those of music.” one whose purpose as bard was
to document the details of the battle for his listeners.

which started my
fascination and study of dragons) and The Lord of the Rings with the extensive historical allusions provided in the appendices of The Return of the
King. England. In my contribution to this book. 2003). the inﬂuence of Catholicism in Tolkien’s works. the amount of musical references are astounding.Introduction (Eden)
my discovery of Tolkien’s writings.
tales. especially related to the
3
. I indicate some of the many musical allusions in
Tolkien’s early versions of his mythology. quite
objectively. there are numerous “songs” that apparently were never
written down but Tolkien imagined as being part and parcel of his world. There is a marvelous book on Tolkien
called Secret Fire: The Spiritual Vision of J. Just in
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. in order to count and record the
number of times words were used that were associated with music.
Tolkien’s work was so inﬂuential on me that early on I wanted to focus
my career on medievalism.R. Tolkien by Stratford Caldecott (Darton. particularly in his poetry.R. I marveled and studied how the different versions. I reveled in the power of storytelling and drama
imbued in The Hobbit (especially the dragon Smaug. or sometimes
combine together. and subsequent drafts of Tolkien’s massive writings began to illustrate strong musical allusions. the numbers are signiﬁcant. the
use of music as a power in and of itself in the mythology is an overall theme
of great importance.
And much of this importance has yet to be researched. the work that he truly loved and
wished to have published during his lifetime but was never able to achieve.D. but also points
out and references many of the musical allusions in Tolkien’s writings as
well as the importance of music in his own life.
and there is an overall joy and exuberance concerning music in the early
writings. Some of the characters with
great musical ability disappear. that I discovered in a little bookstore off the cathedral square in York. and how
this book was Tolkien’s magnum opus. in medieval musicology. Longman and Todd. It not only examines. But it wasn’t until the publication of The Silmarillion in 1977 that I
realized and understood the depth and breadth of Middle-earth. As each volume of The History of Middle-earth appeared during
the 1980s and 1990s. which culminated in a Ph. especially in many of his earliest stories and
the many early versions of Ainulindalë. indeed. As a teenager (not unlike many other
Tolkien enthusiasts). But when
one examines Tolkien’s early poetry and early writings related to the
mythology. morph into something else. I took it upon myself to go through
all of Tolkien’s writings that I could.

Tolkien’s place among
the Victorian medievalist writers. The ﬁrst book to discuss music in
Tolkien’s works was The Song of Middle-Earth: J. 1997) and Interrupted Music: The Making of Tolkien’s Mytholog y (Kent
State University Press.
I have already mentioned my contribution to the book.
But I digress. and the
Woses.
John R. relationships between linguistics and music. He illustrates these
relationships through numerous examples from historical English literature and provides indications of Tolkien’s use of word meanings and sounds
to create a kind of Sprechstimme sing-song throughout his works. 1985). Humphrey Carpenter’s biography of Tolkien includes
many of these references to music (given that Carpenter was a well-known
biographer of musical composers). the Ents. This book examines the impact and uses of music in
Tolkien’s works. and sounds
of philology. phonology.R.R.Introduction
Catholic liturgy.
The themes of longing and exile are the basis for Peter Wilkin’s contribution as he researches the “Cottage of Lost Play” texts and their subsequent replacements in “The Lost Road” and “The Notion Club Papers.
Symbols and Myths by David Harvey (George Allen and Unwin. 2005).
Deanna Delmar Evans explores the relationships between the Middle English Sir Orfeo and Tolkien’s construction of his Beren and Lúthien
tale. and a listing of some of the many unresearched musical-literary themes in Tolkien’s early writings.
4
. The music of the otherworld in literature and in Tolkien is compared as well.
To begin.
Darielle Richards looks at the literary process Tolkien used to craft
his stories.”
especially the central character Eriol. and music are intertwined.R. and
Verlyn Flieger has published two books that touch on this subject as well:
A Question of Time: J. Jason Fisher explores the musical-literary analogies between
the Kingdom of Rohan and the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia.R. phrasings. mentioning some of the musical connections between the two tales. along with interesting references to psychology and philosophy. Tolkien’s Themes. along
with musical references to the Vala Oromë the Hunter. Holmes examines how the rhythms. and even the
biography of an individual who has taken Tolkien’s subcreation philosophy as the basis for his life and work. which examines the Victorian leanings towards musical allusion. Tolkien’s Road to Faerie (Kent State University
Press.

It is my sincere hope that the information contained in this book will
inspire others to enjoy and marvel at the conscious and subconscious musical associations that permeate Tolkien’s works. jazz. and New
Age compositions and composers whose works try to musically depict
many of Tolkien’s themes.
Much of what Anthony S.
The concepts of memory and mortality as they relate to music are
examined by Amy M. heavy metal.” is both profound and fundamentally true. I think that many of us who have been
inﬂuenced by Tolkien’s musical-literary style can agree that his reference
to the “scholar as minstrel” is an adequate and indeed justiﬁed description
of himself and his life’s work. Tolkien is
always careful to remind us that we are. Burdge describes in his biography of Thoth’s
work is similar in concept to nirvana or enlightenment in Buddhism with
elements of new age philosophies. not the least of whom is Thoth. as are how this theme developed from the creation myth
in Ainulindalë and morphs into the issue of free will in the Silmarillion.”
While this contribution would not necessarily be considered scholarly. Sturgis recounts her educational
uses of Tolkien-inspired world music.
David Bratman looks at the role of music in Tolkien’s legendarium. pop. Thoth. characters.K. in fact. a visionary whose
life work has its basis in Tolkien’s concept of subcreation. and then recounting recent classical.Introduction (Eden)
The issue of dissonance as a theme in Middle-earth is discussed by
Keith W. as well as Campbell’s succinct philosophy of “follow your bliss. Jensen.
listing some of Tolkien’s musical contemporaries and their inﬂuence on
him. as she
discusses the many elegies and lays of Middle-earth.
The book ends with a biography of S. Amendt-Raduege. and dramatic encounters. listing some of the more recent subcreational musical compositions that have found their basis in Tolkien’s
mythology. and relates readily to concepts developed by Joseph Campbell in relation to comparative mythology and religion. even if we
cannot hear the music. I think her comment.
5
. “although
we as readers ﬁrst encounter songs of Middle-earth as poetry. I
have included it because it illustrates the inﬂuence and power that Tolkien’s
works have had on many individuals. Amy H. and whose musical performances in New York City’s Central Park have become legendary. reading a song. and while Tolkien readily
indicated in interviews and his letters that he was not a musical person (at
least in the performance of music).
On a more practical level.

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.

and else hard and stern as the mountains” (Tolkien
Lord of the Rings 508). the Ainulindalë. we will see that Tolkien had
7
. the Rohirrim were also known to
give their music another voice through the winding of their horns before
battle.”
“rich and rolling in part. with “a strong music in it. and key etymologies in the genuine Old Mercian and ﬁctive
Sindarin and Quenya languages. This tongue. there are many
more similarities than differences. but more
speciﬁcally.
I will examine in detail the evidence linking Rohan with Mercia and
the signiﬁcance of their shared alliterative oral and musical traditions. A common language — rendered by
Tolkien not just as Old English (Tolkien Lord of the Rings 1136). the blowing of warhorns. The Rohirrim sing and chant using an alliterative verse structure which is strikingly similar to that found in Beowulf. is bodied forth through the importance of song and
oral tradition in both cultures. Furthermore.
provides a direct link backward from the martial and elegiac music of
Rohan to the very Music of Creation itself.
The Battle of Maldon.1
While there are certainly clear distinctions between them. Oromë the Hunter. the Vala whom the Rohirrim revere. as the Mercian dialect of Old English2— goes to the heart of
their common characterization. teasing out the connections between alliterative verse. approaching forty years since the
Professor’s death.Horns of Dawn: The Tradition
of Alliterative Verse in Rohan
Jason Fisher
By this point in Tolkien studies. Finally. And like the Mercians. indeed the greater portion of the surviving Old
English poetry. it is well-known that Tolkien took as a rough model for
his Kingdom of Rohan the genuine Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia.

is a rather broad term for what is actually a
quite complex and often abstruse topic. All the immense changes of life here in more than a thousand years
have not made the end entirely foreign to the beginning [Tolkien A38. describing in
enormous detail the many intricate forms in which the skalds — the Norse
equivalent to the English scops or Celtic bards — made their heroic and
elegiac verses.
with the accompaniment of the harp. Sumerian. the surviving Old English corpus offers some truly remarkable specimens of a uniquely Germanic species
of literature. folio
3. The men who made it walked this soil and under
this sky. Greek. For another. which presents difﬁculties in
discovering the nature of their own pre–Christian religious beliefs. nearly all of the surviving Old English texts come after the Christianization of the AngloSaxons (circa. Roman.
Alliterative verse. the Prose Edda. But in spite of these challenges. For one.
To locate the origins of Anglo-Saxon oral and musical culture. I will argue further that the
alliterative verses and musical culture of the Ents and the Woses — Rohan’s
neighbors to the north and southeast.” Tolkien wrote. we have
to travel back in time to the very dawn of the recorded history of the
British Isles. and Sanskrit texts antedate the oldest Old English texts by many centuries. The bulk of the surviving literary corpus in Old English dates
from no earlier than the tenth century CE. “There is a kinship. Indeed. Egyptian. meant to be chanted or sung. I will have a little more to say about the Norse tradition
below. ab
antiquo. I refer to alliterative verse. as we explore the Kingdom of Rohan.
in spite of all the remoteness and the strangeness.
Then. in some
cases by millennia. indicating a very long swath of the history of man on
which the Old English texts are silent. in Old English verse with
Modern English: it is deﬁnitely part of the history of the mind and mood of
England and the English. the seventh century).Middle-earth Minstrel
personal as well as scholarly reasons for choosing Mercia as his model. is itself a substantial work. as sharply contrasted with the literary traditions of the
Mediterranean. but the date is still relatively late
in several respects.3 This beats the oldest surviving Norse texts by several hundred years. quoted in Lee and Solopova 19]. but I mention Sturluson’s work here to make the point that allit-
8
. called the Skáldskaparmál (“the
language of Skaldic poetry”). respectively — share some of the same
features. the second half of Snorri
Sturluson’s great work. here.

any vowel alliterates with any
other. each verse form with its own particular (and generally speaking. from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Let me elucidate with an example from the opening lines of Beowulf. A full rehearsal of the subject would be
well beyond the scope of this essay. the fourth never (or the second half-line would become identical to the ﬁrst and the sense of the line itself would disappear)” (Shippey
“Tolkien out–Wagners Wagner”). but in the Germanic tradition. with blade. Old Saxon.g. to which I will return in due course. primarily in the ninthcentury ecclesiastical work.”)5
While Beowulf. as exempliﬁed in Beowulf. “Whereat. inﬂexible) rules. meant
to be performed. roughly contemporary with this. wé Gár-Dena
in géardagum
ò éodcyninga
ò rym gefrúnon. simply deﬁned.
/ He bravely broach’d his boiling bloody breast”). is often used nowadays to describe the repetition
of vowel sounds. There were innumerable varieties of it.
hú sá æò elingas
ellen fremedon! [Beowulf. with bloody blameful blade. vowels as well as consonants alliterate with one another. not just
in the many varieties of Old Norse verse.
the Old High German Hildebrandslied— not to mention the proliferation
of Middle English alliterative forms. to be matched by one or both of the
ﬁrst two. but necessary for the sake of brevity:
“a line divided into two halves. The Battle of Maldon.
To offer the simplest possible explanation for alliterative verse in the Germanic languages — a gross injustice. the alliterating syllables are shown in bold-face type. assonance. two stressed syllables in each. Another. ll. the third of
the four always carrying alliteration. is the repetition of similar initial consonant sounds (e. Cynewulf ’s Elene. the Heliand. 1 –3]
(“Lo.
how the princes did valorous deeds. we Spear-Danes in days or yore
have heard of the glory of the kings of our people. chanted or sung. they were really closer to songs. Alliteration.Horns of Dawn (Fisher)
erative verse is not a topic easily potted in a paragraph.
Here. moreover. more general
literary term. accompanied by the Anglo-Saxon harp
9
. with the governing syllable also underlined:
Hwæt.4
Tolkien was an expert in the Germanic alliterative tradition.. but also the alliterative forms in
Old English. and the many
other works in verse of the Old English corpus are usually thought of as
poems by today’s literary standards.

minstrel. potatory. Just
to give a few of them.” For verbs of music-making: hearpian “to play the harp.” gléoman “a gleeman. singer” (literally. the language. From laws laid down by King Wihtræd.” For performers: hearpere “harper.. of which Tolkien himself
produced an edition.
and he then neither shouts nor blows the horn. whistles. ﬂute.” singan “to sing.
Now. from the Old English Exodus.” hwistlian
“to whistle. a mere few of the sur´ wæs hearpan swég. as well as musical.
textual evidence attests musical notation as early as the tenth century
(Rankin 97). gleómannes gyd” (ll. bells.” bémere “trumpeter. he is to be regarded [and tried]
as a thief: either to slay [him] or to let [him] go. but for evidence that the Anglo-Saxons had a musical culture at all. scop “a poet.” horn “horn” (animal.
First. Lapidge 328–9.9
a rather dire intimation that the failure to sound a horn might cost a man
his life:
Gif feorran cumen man osse fræmde búton wege gange and hé sonne náwòer
ne hrïme ne hé horn ne bláwe for seóf hé bis tó próﬁanne: oòòe to sleánne
oòòe to alïsenne [Sedgeﬁeld 324]. published posthumously in 1981: “Æfter òam wor-
10
. Furthermore.
(“If from a distance comes a man or a stranger. Again.” and the
most well-known.
the art of music” (whence the modern English “glee club”)8. “òær
tol sang scopes” (ll. and “leós wæs ásungen. the gleeman’s song”). 89–90: “there were harps sounded.Middle-earth Minstrel
(Pope 88–95). hwistle “a pipe. Old English contains a number of words used to
describe musical culture. including words for musical instruments.
and so on (Arnold 97–8. and goes out of the highway. / swuviving examples will sufﬁce.”)
And ﬁnally. a shaper). drums. see also Crowest). verbs
to describe playing or singing.6 Archaeological evidence has shown that various AngloSaxon musical instruments existed — harps.7 in this case. a kind of lyre).
analogous to Latin corn¨ “horn” ➝ English cornet).” béme “trumpet. for instruments and other musical nouns we have:
hearpe “harp” (more properly. 1159–60: “the lay
was sung. From Beowulf. and sang
“song. and words for the kinds of people responsible for the entertainment in mead-halls in every corner of the island. and
Lang. the language of the Anglo-Saxons and the literature
through which it is attested. horns. gléo-cræft “glee-craft. the singer’s clear
song”). whistle. let’s have a look at the literature. we need look no further than those sibling rivals.” hwistlere
“whistler. Lit.

Tolkien
produced his own edition of Sir Orfeo.10 and this broad
movement includes three key works of literature of which Tolkien made
very close study: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.]. Whichever is
true — that the Middle English Alliterative Revival was or was not the
direct descendent of the Old English tradition.
With E.
It is a matter of some debate whether the practice of writing alliterative verse in the Middle English period follows directly from that in the
Old English period. which Tolkien
translates: “After these words the host rejoiced. and a personal interest. it was not to be.Horns of Dawn (Fisher)
dum werod wæs on salum. of Tolkien’s.
his own translations of all three poems were ﬁnally published.. / With lel letteres loken.
this is no less true of the Middle English literature than of the Old.13 On the other hand. / sungon sigebyman” (ll. / as
was loved in this land of old” (Tolkien Sir Gawain 25–6). / In londe so
hat3 ben longe” (Tolkien and Gordon 2). but in the end. to cut closer to Tolkien’s quick.. Tolkien himself was one of those who believed
that Middle English alliterative verse was “descended [from Old English]
through an unbroken oral tradition” (Tolkien and Gordon 118). Gordon. or stands more or less independent from it.]. is
the Alliterative Revival a nativizing invention of twentieth-century scholars
with an investment in rescuing the ancient English past from the encroachments of other cultural traditions? The debate continues [Chism 9–10].
an antiquarian revival of past poetic forms.V. This Tolkien renders in his own
translation. and Sir Orfeo. 564–5). or were those half-lost forms freely
reinvented for contemporary purposes? Or.12 Two years after Tolkien’s death. The two scholars planned to collaborate on an edition of Pearl as well. / thus linked and truly lettered. the victorious trumpets
sang a music fair” (Tolkien Exodus 32). printed privately by the Academic
Copying Ofﬁce of Oxford University. Tolkien published an edition of Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight in 1925.. Tolkien’s use of allitera-
11
. who describes his
own story as “stad and stoken [.
We have seen how the Germanic tradition of alliterative verse was a
professional focus. Pearl. “Was late
medieval alliterative verse.” asks Christine Chism. As I hinted above.. he invokes the authority of the Gawain poet.11 In 1944. “ﬁxed and fettered [. To make
his case.
One must imagine Tolkien would be sympathetic to such a vested
interest. Scholars often refer to the renaissance of alliterative verse in the fourteenth
through sixteenth centuries as the Alliterative Revival.

saying (pace Martinez):
You remember. this shared heritage of verse forms — and hence.
Examples of Tolkien’s own alliterative poems are numerous. and beyond. Absolutely untrue! Tolkien cover-
12
. there are differences between the Anglo-Saxons and the
Rohirrim. Éowyn. where
Tolkien says you mustn’t think that the Riders [of Rohan] resemble the ancient
English in any except accidental respects. had equine names (meaning. Indeed.
To be sure. on which I have touched above and will have more to say
below. published in The Lays of Beleriand. Marcho and Blanco. Tolkien constructed a parallel on
this in the Hobbit names.” the Rohirrim match the Anglo-Saxons portrayed in the Bayeux
Tapestry “well enough” (Tolkien Letters 281).Middle-earth Minstrel
tive forms for his own original poetry should properly be regarded as the
terminus of a continuum from the Old and Middle English alliterative
styles.15 However. Éomund. intention. foremost among them the reverence of horses. many Rohirric words and names likewise contain the element eoh
“horse”— e. both of which also mean
“horse” (Shippey Road 102). But the best-known are
naturally the poems of The Lord of the Rings. Therefore.
Tom Shippey has taken the argument that the Rohirrim are like the
Anglo-Saxons much further. “stallion” and “horse”). respectively. no doubt. Tolkien does not say so
explicitly. the footnote. shared musical culture — represents another bridge between the people of Rohan and those
of Anglo-Saxon England. ﬁgures in the tapestry are shown
on horseback.
which runs to more than three thousand lines. One of the most substantial is the Lay of the Children of Húrin. and most of the alliterative
verses in that work are associated with Rohan. “were quite various in date. and even literary model” (Shippey “Alliterative Verse” 10). although not strictly
“medieval.
one for every three human ﬁgures. though one must allow that the greater
part of these were associated with the Normans.
Tolkien wrote to Rhona Beare in 1958 that. whether genuine or merely scholarly. the two legendary
ﬁgures associated with the adventus saxonum. the tapestry depicts more than two hundred horses.. but of more relevance to the present discussion.g.14 These. but in many of the scenes in the Bayeux Tapestry (particularly
in the depiction of the Battle of Hastings).16
It also bears remembering that Hengest and Horsa. in one of the Appendices.
normally composed in Modern English but occasionally in Old English
and once in Gothic. éored. Éothéod. Éomer. not the Anglo-Saxons. in addition to
the language.

down to
minute detail. who made this observation
more than twenty-ﬁve years ago.
So let us take as a given (recognizing there is still debate in some
quarters) that Tolkien modeled his Riders of Rohan.18 In surviving texts. Having granted this.
Tom Shippey has demonstrated. Herugrim for “standard” Searuman. is demonstrably the Mercian form (unattested. and cp. particularly the western half of it.
Not many have noted that they are not in the “standard” or “classical” West
Saxon dialect of Old English. by the Kingdom of Northumbria to the north.. I take my the cue from the
preeminent Tolkien scholar.
on the early Anglo-Saxons. and meant “border-people” (from the common West
Saxon word mearc “limit. Tom Shippey.
the Mercians. it is possible to be even
more speciﬁc.Horns of Dawn (Fisher)
ing his tracks yet again! The Riders of Rohan resemble the Old English down
to minute detail. border”).. as shown by the asterisk in the quotation above) for the West Saxon
Mearc. The region
in question.. and the Welsh Kingdom
of Powys to the west. as many have noted [. to the greater extent. which is “Mercians. not
being allowed in to see the king with weapons in your hand. Mearc and *Marc [Road 123].” The word was sometimes recorded
as Mirce or Mierce.. which Tolkien studied
and whose works he translated.. too. and I have indeed already tipped my hand above : the
Rohirrim were meant to reﬂect one particular kingdom of Anglo-Saxons. all these come straight out of Beowulf.] but they also behave
that way.]”17. how the name the Rohirrim
gave to their own land. the counsellor
sitting at the feet of the king. and
by the lesser Kingdoms of East Anglia and Essex to the east.
very often [“Tolkien Society Annual Dinner” 15]. The actual things they say are said by characters in Beowulf. I am not the ﬁrst to suggest it. which is “Mercia” itself. but in what is thought to have been its Mercian
parallel. All the habits which he talks about like [.] piling arms outside. Their names are all Old English [. the Mark. as well as the West Midland counties where
Tolkien himself grew up. corresponded to the home
of the West Midland dialects of Middle English. It signiﬁed a land bordered on all sides:
by the English Kingdom of Wessex to the south. however. Heasufel. Shippey explains that “[a]ll the Riders’
names and language are Old English. Hasufel. the people of Wessex
called their neighbors in the Midlands to the north the Myrce (Author of
the Century 91 –2).19 And let us take a moment to consider perhaps
13
.
Heorugrim. so Saruman..

Middle-earth Minstrel
the strongest physical intimation of a parallel between Mercia and Rohan:
Offa’s Dike. A
particularly vexatious neighbor was the Welsh Kingdom of Powys.
inhabitants of Dunland?21 In Éomer’s words: “[n]ot far ahead now lies
Helm’s Dike. to keep at bay the incursions of the wild. that Modern English in
large part has developed. but the acute insufﬁciency of its corpus all the more
difﬁcult to bear. AngloSaxon literature as a whole. an ancient trench and rampart scored across the coomb. a defensive dike buffering a hostile and pagan region to
the immediate west of both Mercia and Rohan seems to be more than
mere coincidence.
Of course.
Offa was king of the Mercians over the latter half of the eighth century. but this would have represented the kind of loss Tolkien
would feel anxious to redress. There we can turn and give battle” (Tolkien
Lord of the Rings 530). it is from the Mercian dialect through the Midland
dialects of Middle English (eastern and western). irrespective
of their interest — are recorded in the West Saxon dialect. the vast majority of all the surviving texts. however. Almost all of the surviving Old English texts of any literary interest — and indeed. though literary Old English is almost
entirely West Saxon. It would have been an even more highly localized loss
than the destruction of pre–Christian.
Beyond Tolkien’s personal connection to the soil of Mercia. Can it
be coincidence that Tolkien places a similar dike in the western part of
Rohan. along the border between the two kingdoms (Stenton 211 –3). during the height of the ascendancy of Mercia over its neighbors. there are
very practical reasons why Tolkien might have chosen that land for his
model. This makes understanding the Mercian dialect
all the more important. a literary and linguistic lacuna he would wish
to ﬁll if he could. a few valuable Mercian texts do survive. two
furlongs below Helm’s Gate. Why is there no signiﬁcant body of Mercian literature? No one knows
the whole story.20 During the second
half of Offa’s reign and probably under his direct supervision (as near as
we can tell from English and Welsh documentary evidence). with
its tendency to raid villages of the western Midlands. Perhaps the most
important is the so-called Vespasian Psalter (British Museum Cotton Ves-
14
. one might even say Celtic. not the Mercian. an earthwork
more than one hundred miles in length was constructed in western Mercia. Offa’s Dike is considerably the more impressive of
the two. Yet. and later pre–Norman.

there are ﬁve major types of music. “Learn now the lore of Living Creatures” (Lee and Solopova 183–93). the sounds of marching boots.23
Given that the War of the Ring is the tapestry on which Tolkien’s
ﬁner plot elements are embroidered. comprising ballads. 78). gnomic verse
comprises riddles. Gléowine. maxims. and archaeological connections.” which ﬁnds an echo in The Lord of the Rings in Treebeard’s alliterative bestiary poem. the beating of drums
(or of spears on shields). The Anglo-Saxon Exeter
Book contains much of this material. ﬁnd echoes in Tolkien in poems
such as “Eärendil was a mariner. 177. alliterative specimen may be found in the lament for King
Théoden.
a beautiful. most especially in examples
taken from Rohan and its immediate neighbors. epics. historical. a text Tolkien is known to have studied and taught (Scull and
Hammond Chronolog y 162.
elegiac.
Martial music is not necessarily recorded in plain words. All but the last are mirrored in The Lord
of the Rings. It was probably from the Vespasian Psalter that Tolkien borrowed many of the Mercian forms of Old
English words he used in his legendarium (Scull and Hammond Chronolog y 380. Of elegiac verses. I would like
to examine a few of these more closely now. Tolkien produced an intricate diagram of
the “Normal Development of ‘A’ in Vespasian Ps[alter] & Ancrene Wisse. it should come as no surprise to ﬁnd
within its pages many instances of martial verse and music.Horns of Dawn (Fisher)
pasian A. “Maxims II.
Moving from linguistic.”
bridging the gap between Mercian Old English and West Midland Middle English (Life and Legend 75. Such music is not attested but described in the surviving literature. martial. while engaged in
writing The Lord of the Rings. there are many examples from The Lord of the Rings. made by his minstrel. represented in the surviving Anglo-Saxon corpus: heroic. Tolkien Shaping of Middle-earth 290).22 And ﬁnally. but there is also another important
work.” but the style is represented much better by Tolkien’s moving and musical prose (as in “The Ride of the
Rohirrim” and “The Battle of Pelennor Fields.). Let me begin with a passage from Beowulf :
15
. and recorded wisdom.
let us turn now to a discussion of the similarities in the Rohirric and Mercian musical cultures. 1). In 1942. but rather consists in the winding of horns before and during battle. sensu
lato. Heroic verse. 167. As I see it. and historical works
such as Beowulf and The Battle of Maldon. gnomic.” on which more below). and ecclesiastic. sqq. and the war-cries
of thanes.

√ROM “loud
noise. horn-blast. as opposed to Old
English horn “(1) horn of an animal. trumpet-sound” (Tolkien Lost Road 384).” Deriving from this root are Quenya romba “horn.
That the Rohirrim would name Oromë Béma is quite logical. trumpet. there is a Rider of Rohan with the name Horn. ll. then the good king came
with the power of his people on the track marching. they gave Oromë the name Béma. “the Horn of the Vala. bï ma.Middle-earth Minstrel
[.
849). trumpet” and róma “loud sound. though
Tolkien wafﬂed a little on this point. 2941 –4]. whom they credited with bringing the original sire of the mearas
(simply. “horses”) to Middle-earth from Valinor (Tolkien Lord of the Rings
1065).
occurs in the passage above. readers learn that the Rohirrim revered Oromë
the Hunter. we can
discern another illuminating point of contact with the larger backcloth of
Tolkien’s legendarium.
16
. it is elsewhere made clear that the Quenya róma can also mean “horn. trumpet.. The
relationship to Oromë and his Valaróma is obvious. Moreover. (3) horn. as he
is identiﬁed with the Valaróma..” though indeed.” The West Saxon form of this word. And in these lines. This makes Old English béma “trumpet” the correct
choice for representing Oromë in the Rohirric language.”)
This selection from the poem’s fortieth ﬁtt should remind the reader of
Rohan’s “in the nick of time” succor of Gondor.] Rescue came again
To those sorrow-hearted men with the dawn
when they Hygelac’s horn and trumpet
and his battle-song24 they heard.” from the Primitive Eldarin root.
léoda dugose
on lást faran [Beowulf. Lord of the Rings. In one of the relatively few explicit references to the
Valar in The Lord of the Rings. who
perished in the battle before Minas Tirith and is remembered in one of
Tolkien’s more eloquent alliterative elegies (Tolkien.” Indeed.
(“[..” and refers
to the musical instrument and not to the horn of an animal (Tolkien War
of the Jewels 368). from an Old Mercian
word meaning “horn. (2) drinking horn. In Rohirric.25 the putative etymology of the name
Oromë is “horn-blowing.]
Frófor eft gelamp
sárigmódum
somod aér dæge
syssan híe Hygeláces
horn ond bïman
gealdor ongéaton
òá se góda cóm..

where we ﬁnd one connection. There exists
another Eldarin root. recall that the storied horn
of Boromir was made from the horn of “the wild kine of Araw in the far
ﬁelds of Rhûn” (Tolkien Lord of the Rings 755. it seems defensible to argue that Oromë’s part in the Ainulindalë inspired the martial music and verse of Middle-earth in an analogous
fashion (though differing in the details).29
As scholars of Tolkien know very well by now. yet there are reasons to suppose it is not. Asgard. and honey — that
conveyed to any who drank it a mastery of skaldic poetry and music.. From that point on. then. blood.26
In the Old Norse tradition. √Ry “rise. In another of the few
references to the Valar in The Lord of the Rings.
But because of the loss of all but a few vestigial traces of England’s own
pre–Christian (i.Horns of Dawn (Fisher)
It seems. Odin shared the mead with those
who wished to master the arts of the skald.e. the father of the Saxon gods. the similarity of √Ry to √ROM could be entirely coincidental. This. we have a horn.” writes Crowest (84). winded before
17
. in turn. Is
there an analogue to this divine transmission in the Germanic tradition?
Indeed. we’re likely to ﬁnd another — sometimes many others. In
the Prose Edda. just as others of the Valar may
have been responsible for other aspects of the musical culture of Middleearth.28 While there are no simple
one-to-one relationships in Tolkien’s complex manipulation of source
material. respectively] was attributed to Odin or Wodin [Norse and AngloSaxon. pagan) belief system. see also 1039n1). we must turn to the Anglo-Saxons’ northern neighbors to fully appreciate the signiﬁcance of the mythological origins of this music. There are
three important points here: (1) once again.” from which derives Quenya rómen
“east. the Music of the Ainur. respectively]. to regurgitate it into three jars once safely back in the abode of
the gods. would seem to have been
Oromë’s own contribution to the Ainulindalë. then ﬂeeing the giant (both of them taking the form of
eagles). the skáldskapar mjas ar “the mead of
poetry”27 (also.” Of course. “[t]he origin of the art of the scóp or scald [Anglo-Saxon and
Norse. that we may trace the origins of the Rohirrim’s martial music — horns and drums and marching feet — back to Oromë and to
the music of battle and the hunt. Snorri Sturluson recounts the wonderfully pagan story of
how Odin connived to swallow all of the giant Suttungr’s mead in three
great swallows. Suttungmjas ar “Suttungr’s Mead”) was a mythological nectar — a rather unappetizing amalgam of spittle.

and (3) Rhûn
is simply the Sindarin word for “east” (cognate to Quenya rómen). His golden shield was
uncovered. though
never spelled out explicitly. We see all of these elements brought
together in a single scene in Tolkien’s description of Théoden’s arrival at
Minas Tirith:
[H]e seized a great horn from Guthláf his banner-bearer. in the
extreme east of Middle-earth (Tolkien Silmarillion 48–50).
In this passage. readers are meant to infer a connection between
Oromë and the furthest reaches of the east.] [Tolkien Lord of the
Rings 838]. Recall. respectively. nevertheless. and he blew such a
blast upon it that it burst asunder. in the strictest sense. the proximity of
two key phrases —aér dæge “dawn” (literally. attentive readers will notice a third explicit reference to
Oromë (by three different names) in The Lord of the Rings. Oromë. dawn
in the east. traditionally heralded by the cock. And straightway all the horns in the host
were lifted up in music. For morning came.30
Returning to the passage from Beowulf cited above. and the music of the horn. the Rohirrim. it transpires. even as Oromë the Great
in the battle of the Valar when the world was young. “before day”). Rohan’s neighbors to the southeast and the north. and the grass ﬂamed into
green about the white feet of his steed. and the blowing of the horns in Rohan in that hour
was like a storm upon the plain and a thunder in the mountains. The choice
cannot be accidental.. who communicate with one another over great
distances through the beating of drums. that it was Oromë who ﬁrst discovered the Elves in Cuiviénen. wild men and wary. It is of course from the east
that dawn comes. and the darkness was removed [. Their musical and poetic cultures. and lo! it shone like an image of the Sun. the drum is the traditional instrument accompanying martial and hunting songs. [.
too.31
I would like to close with a cursory look at the music of the Woses
and the Ents. Clearly. We know very little about the
Drúedain. morning and a
wind from the sea. and it is probably not quite right to call this tympanic communication music...
18
. (2) Araw is the Sindarin form of the name..Middle-earth Minstrel
battle. but one might as well
imagine the horn in its place.] [Théoden] was borne up on Snowmane like a god of old. share much in common with that of the Riddermark. The Woses are much the simpler of the
two. followed by
Hygeláces horn ond bï man “Hygelac’s horn and trumpet”— is echoed by
Tolkien through a corresponding link between Oromë.

it is quite appropriate that
the largest concentration of medieval Germanic verse-forms and musical
types should occur in Rohan and its two nearest neighbors — to a lesser
extent in neighbors further aﬁeld. Sauron. moreover. light touches. more than any other chapter in The Lord of the Rings.” to the elegiac songs of Treebeard and Quickbeam. More to the point of the present
study.
“Learn now the lore of Living Creatures. for it exhibits qualities and characteristics that have
remained ever since a steadfast ingredient in English” (Tolkien “Valedictory Address” 22).Horns of Dawn (Fisher)
The Ents present a clearer case.] beating time with their hands
upon their ﬂanks” (Tolkien Lord of the Rings 484–5). and poignant vision. And moreover. where the histories of the Elves. Tolkien’s words apply equally well to The Lord of the Rings:
And therein lies the unrecapturable magic of ancient English verse for those
who have ears to hear: profound feeling.
Whether deliberate or merely fortuitous. are aroused by brief phrases.
short words resounding like harp-strings sharply plucked [Tolkien Monsters
60]. “it is already in ﬂower. and the Ring are its roots. such as in the Shire and Bree.
and they are all pretty clearly meant to be sung.” writes Tolkien.33 That an Old English undercurrent should be
detectable in both roots and branches is logical. their verses are broadly representative of several of the categories of
Anglo-Saxon verse discussed above — from the alliterative gnomic verse.
To typify this profound feeling. I think Tolkien captured exactly what
these should be in his essay. mutatis
mutandis. “On Translating Beowulf. “So-called Anglo-Saxon
cannot be regarded merely as a root. to the rousing and bellicose marching song that
closes the chapter. the events in Rohan and its environs are the heartwood of Tolkien’s
novel. and mortality. ﬁlled with the
beauty and mortality of the world. poignant vision.
Even the Ents’ voices are musical (likened to woodwind instruments) and
their language tonal and polyphonic. chanted. is a genuine song
with a musical accompaniment of horn and percussion: “a marching music
began like solemn drums.32 The chapter “Treebeard” contains
ﬁve separate poems. and above the rolling beats and booms there
welled voices singing high and strong [.
and the Hobbits’ experiences before and after the War of the Ring are its
blossoming branches.” Here.
But it is a root. beauty. “To Isengard!” This last. it is quite a masterstroke for Tolkien to link the blowing of martial
19
. In this
way. or even hummed...

5. There are isolated survivors from earlier centuries.6 “Alliterating voiced velars in early
Old English” (113–20).
His mother. but this qualiﬁes as alliteration according to the rules of the scop. past. It is also
distinctly English.
4.
to link the Riders of Rohan with the knights of Anglo-Saxon Mercia. For those interested in learning more. from the
dimly preserved mythology of a remote. edited Tolkien’s posthumous edition of the Old English Exodus (1981).
20
.2 “The alliterative conundrum” (72–77) and 3. and
to recall the Vala. and shared.” published in
The Monsters and the Critics. joy.
To address this gap in the scholarship.
8. For a very thorough look at the evidence of the Anglo-Saxon harp—exactly what
kind of instrument it was.
6. I am preparing an extended study. The word does not occur in any of the other Germanic languages. Tom Shippey discusses the use of the Mercian dialect in The Road to Middleearth (123) and Author of the Century (91 –2. like his sometime antecedent.
2. 169). For a good introduction to the Kingdom of Mercia. the subject has been
almost completely overlooked. of which the
evidence of the dialect presented below is an abridgement. Even there. the word is rare (Kershaw 164n52). For more information on the Alliterative Revival. particularly
3. Though gléo (and variously. with a musical connotation.Middle-earth Minstrel
horns with the profoundly moving image of dawn (and hope) returning.
3. see Dorothy Everett’s Essays
on Middle English Literature. how it was played. but not in connection with the Riders of Rohan. “On Translating Beowulf ” (in The Monsters and the Critics).
with the exception of Old Norse gles i. see
his essay. Apart from this. All translations are mine. glig) actually means “glee. King of Kent from the ﬁnal decade of the seventh century through the ﬁrst
quarter of the eighth. For Tolkien’s
own description of the medieval Germanic alliterative tradition and its mechanics.” it is
most often used. especially chapters 2–3. see Chapter VII “The Ascendancy of the Mercian Kings” in Stenton’s Anglo-Saxon England. Oromë.
Notes
1. in
géardagum.
9. See Tolkien’s “Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford. the initial sound matches that in English year). Thorlac Turville-Peter himself has a distant connection to Tolkien. unless otherwise noted. and an exhaustive survey of Anglo-Saxon
literary references to it — see Boenig. see Minkova. as well as Christopher Tolkien’s further elucidation in the introduction to The Legend of Sigurd and
Gudrún (45–50) and Lee and Solopova’s introduction to The Keys of Middle-earth (38–
42).
10. And see Thorlac Turville-Petre’s The
Alliterative Revival. a good place to begin is Chapter 6
“Alliteration” of Geoffrey Russom’s Beowulf and the Old Germanic Meter. gleow. Joan.
7. particularly in compound forms. For further discussion. gliw. Odin. the entirety of Tom Cable’s The English Alliterative Tradition. Or for still
more. It bears pointing out that the
initial consonants in Gár-Dena and géardagum are not sounded alike (rather. Christopher Tolkien mentions his father’s use of Mercian
in The History of Middle-earth (passim). such as the eighth-century
Cædmon’s Hymn.

with “valuable notes and corrections” ([iii]) from
Tolkien.
13. thirty-two of them include horses. see (inter alia) The Lays of Beleriand. in addition
to] simply a boundary marker. A few examples from the years before the appearance of Shippey’s seminal book:
John Tinkler’s “Old English in Rohan” (1968) and Jim Allan’s “The Giving of Names:
Names of the Rohirrim” (1978).
19. with an introduction and notes by Carl Hostetter. See also two letters to his son. [etc. This edition was reprinted.
21. “[t]he tapestry’s artist
was impressed by the novelty of so many horses travelling by sea. Auden.
15. The Lord of the Rings. 128). whose horses did not relish scaling its 25-foot bank” ( Jenkins
37). and of course. and perhaps thousands.
11. Tom Shippey was the ﬁrst
scholar to note the Mercian forms of the Rohirric nomenclature.
17. Gordon died in 1938. The longer form of the name. 108). where Tolkien makes plain his connections to and fondness for
Mercian (Letters 65. Riddermark. for his own thoughts of the
West Midlands (Letters 213). It bears pointing out that Tolkien also
wrote an alliterative verse drama.
18.
14. By providing a linear frontier for Mercia it acted as a deterrent to Welsh raiders. The whole region
which Tolkien called “the counties upon the Welsh Marches” (Tolkien Letters 218) was
21
. of
such horses being led off the ships that day” (Ibid.
For those seeking a concise introduction to the concept. completed the edition in 1953. Of course. see Chapter 7 “Things You Might
Not Have Known about the Northmen. “Offa’s Dyke was a defensive earthwork rather than [I would say. For discussion of many other differences. and very few have noted
it since. see Fisher. The Legend of Sigurd and
Gudrún. Of the tapestry’s ﬁfty-nine scenes. “Depicted along its length are 626 human ﬁgures. the Welsh undoubtedly has similar feelings about the Mercians. Christopher.
Ida.
When E. leaving ship. is meant to be a modernization of
*riddena-mearc (= “riders’ mark”).”
designed to accompany his essay on The Battle of Maldon. and. the project languished for some years before his widow.
16. Lin Carter’s A Look Behind “The
Lord of the Rings” (1969) and Ruth Noel’s The Languages of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth (originally published in 1974).V. so Tolkien indicates in the index to the second edition
of The Lord of the Rings. For examples. One horse has a hind leg still on the boat as he clambers into the shallow water. as far as I am aware. for he shows us the horses.
in Tolkien Studies. and
it is both too well-known and too far outside my present scope to spill further ink here. However. published in 1957 an edition of Hervarar Saga ok Heis reks.
20. 55 dogs.” in fan-scholar Michael Martinez’s Parma Endorion: Essays on Middle-Earth.
12. “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son. I will not digress into a full discussion of Tolkien’s wish to restore to England
its lost native mythology.]”
(Bridgeford 5). this characterization of the Welsh is from a distinctly Mercian vantage.
The term “Mythology for England” has become a commonplace in Tolkien studies. Tolkien was ultimately unable to commit the necessary time to the project. See Tolkien’s letter to W. 202 horses.Horns of Dawn (Fisher)
His father Gabriel. for which
Christopher Tolkien wrote the introduction. 7 June 1955. In
one particular case (scene 36: “HIC EXEVNT CABALLI DENVAVIBVS”). Volume 1 (2004).H.
rather than the men. for all their ﬂaws. 9 December 1943
and 18 January 1945. destroyed over a period of centuries by invasion and conquest. There must have been hundreds.

and for a thorough accounting of the divine source(s)
of poetry and song. This is. not Greek). Ulmo’s great horns (shell.” The original Valarin name. Including appendices and notes along with the main text.
readers may consult any convenient edition of the Prose Edda. In The Silmarillion it is said that the Elves received the gift of song and poetry
from Manwë (40). speciﬁcally. 1581 –2.Middle-earth Minstrel
hotly and repeatedly contested by the Welsh and English throughout the period of Mercia’s ascendancy and only fully resolved from a state of “perennial conﬂict” (Lloyd 325)
when Mercia bowed to the emerging dominance of Wessex in the ninth century. having amended the line to read galan for gealdor in his edition of the poem. In his 1936 lecture on Beowulf. he says in the essay. who is also a kind of Odinic ﬁgure (as are aspects of Oromë.
the Second Kindred of the Elves. See also Tom Shippey.
and it can be no coincidence that Tolkien chose Nóm. “had no such meaning” (Tolkien War of the Jewels 400). One gets the feeling. imposed by Tolkien long after the fact. charm. See also
Lloyd. galdor generally refers to a spell. Or for a fuller and better summary than I have given
here. which Tolkien used to describe the Noldoli. two by the name Araw. had a similar etymology (though in Elvish.
23. poetry” together with mjas ar “of mead.
22. the opening
chapter of the Skáldskaparmál. of course. reached the ears of Men. itself clearly martial. that this is rather a
straw-man line of reasoning. see Grimm 902–4. For the complete tale.
26. passim. But the fundamentally similar
heroic temper of ancient England and Scandinavia cannot have been founded on (or
perhaps rather.
31. “Quendi and Eldar. trumpet. The Old English word gealdor. only the merest summary of the story.” Tolkien decided that Oromë =
“horn-blowing” was merely Elvish folk-etymology.
30. by association with Quenya romba
“horn. was also somewhere in the extreme east of
Middle-earth. betoken the music of the waters.” the genitive of mjös r).” whence. quite apparent also
in the English enchantment (Latin incatItio). noldo. homophonic with gnome and indeed meaning “wisdom. there are six total
references to Oromë: three by the name Oromë. “Tolkien and Iceland: The Philology of
Envy. also
the word gnome.
24. Tolkien explained: “Of English
pre–Christian mythology we know practically nothing. Also. More accurate — but less poetic — might be “poetry of mead” (consisting of
skáld-skapr “skaldship. Tolkien’s own word. Finrod Felagund.” rather than “spell” or “enchantment. cannot have generated) mythologies divergent on this essential point”
(Tolkien Monsters 21).
25. though it is related directly to the verb galan “to
sing.”
29. In a relatively late essay. Hildórien. The name is apt: Gléowine is an Old English compound meaning “minstrel”
(gléo “music” + wine “friend”). but I have thought it most sensible to translate the word as “battle-song. gealdor-cræft “sorcery”). The word gnomic derives from the Greek yvwμn “intelligence. refer to all of Grimm’s
Chapter XXX “Poetry. originally a Paracelsian sprite. for example. ranging across the mythological spectrum. and one by the
22
. however. during his earliest myth-making (Tolkien Lost Tales I
43–4).
and other characters). the birthplace of Men.”
27.
28.” for the name the ﬁrst Men gave to the Noldo. the
Ulumúri. or incantation (cp.” Benjamin Thorpe
agrees in spirit. Tolkien was not at all uncomfortable with the substitution of Norse myths for
those lost in England. not animal horn). And even the clamorous music of Melkor.” The connection between spell-craft and music is an old one. Gandalf.

R. with notes and appendix.
Oxford: Clarendon. 183–98.C. The Ents are. Hayes.” Speculum 71. Mineola. Ed.” Proceedings of the J.
Fisher. Tolkien. Patricia Kean. Eds. without a doubt. “A Mythology for England. 445–7.
Works Cited
Allan.
Gordon. Patricia Reynolds and Glen GoodKnight. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Robert.R. 212–20. An Archaeology of the Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. 1969. “Mythology for England. For a discussion of Anglo-Saxon connections among the oldest legends of the
Elves.
Everett. J.”
Myth and Magic: Art According to the Inklings. E. with the assistance of J.2 (April 1996): 290–320. Volumes I–IV. 1953. “The Footsteps of Ælfwine. Milton
Keynes. song. horn. James Steven Stallybrass.” New York: Ballantine. 1991. 9–10. Frederick James. Verlyn Flieger and Carl F. Cambridge Concise Histories. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Looking at just the main text. one to Morgoth.” In Drout. 1955. The English Alliterative Tradition. 281 –90. Michael D.
unmatched by the Elves. 1896.
Boenig..
Crowest. Robert.J. Verlyn. The Rev. ed.R. “A Mythology for England? Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth. and a stunning twenty-ﬁve to Varda
(however. and their variations and synonyms occur more than
ﬁfty times in this single chapter!
33.
The words music. A Concise History of Wales. Teutonic Mytholog y. Tom. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. A Look Behind “The Lord of the Rings.. Essays on Middle English Literature. 2007. 2006. Pearl. Westport.R.
Cable. None of the other Valar are
named in the main body of The Lord of the Rings. CT: Greenwood. drum. The Story of British Music: From the Earliest Times to the Tudor
Period. Lin.
Arnold.V. for links between the lost Anglo-Saxon
mythology and the world of the Hobbits. 1978.Horns of Dawn (Fisher)
name Béma. Dorothy.
2000.R. 1966.
Honegger. Ida Gordon. London: Routledge. Zurich and Berne: Walking Tree. 1988.
Flieger.
32. three to
the Valar as a single divine body. New York: Routledge. Hostetter.” Tolkien’s Legendarium: Essays on the History
of Middle-earth. “The Anglo-Saxon Harp. “Alliterative Revival. 1995.
Hostetter.
23
. Carl. Thomas.
Goldberg. England: Bran’s Head. C. see Goldberg and Honegger. see Hostetter and Smith as well as Flieger. 4th ed. Cormarë Series 14. Trans. and perhaps even more musical than the tuneful Tom Bombadil.
Chism. Jacob. 109–130.”
Mallorn 44 (August 2006): 29–34.R. “Frodo as Beowulf: Tolkien Reshapes the Anglo-Saxon Heroic Ideal. Jim. England: Tolkien Society.
Ed.” An Introduction to Elvish.. Christine. Jason. Eds. Oxford: Clarendon. Eds. there are two references to Oromë. “The Giving of Names: Names of the Rohirrim. and Arden Smith.
Drout. most of these occur in poems and invocations).” In Drout. ed. 2007. Eduardo Segura and Thomas
Honegger. NY: Dover. the most musical inhabitants of Middle-earth. Geraint H.
Tolkien Centenary Conference.
Jenkins.
Grimm.
Carter. Jim Allan.

philology. Furthermore. Holmes
I wonder if C. In fact. is all the more credible because we know of a phenomenon that does something like that. Robert Murray.” Sam had described the experience of entering the
realm of the elves in Lothlórien the same way: “I feel as if I was inside a
song. 342). Tolkien’s nearly unique approach to
philology did not isolate that discipline from poetry. if you take my meaning” (Lord of the Rings Book Two. I hope that a
less modest literary critic (with.
music conveys meaning (sometimes) without apparently engaging the
semantic mechanism of the brain. The Platonic dream of a language that
conveys meaning directly. if you get my drift) might be
part of the meaning of music in Tolkien’s ﬁction. Sam’s anxiety about having his meaning taken (and that
phrase is something of a mantra for him. because the word is not a counter for the thing
itself but somehow the essence of that thing in sound. whose aspirations to
26
.“Inside a Song”:
Tolkien’s Phonaesthetics
John R. and that Tolkien was perhaps its most
accomplished wizard. But if Tolkien’s modesty in the presence of the true wizards — those who play strings — would forbid him to say so. no doubt.
p. even less aptitude for music
than Tolkien had) might be permitted to assert that Tolkien’s chosen profession. Chapter VI. The
phenomenon is music.
In a letter to his Jesuit friend Fr. has its own music. Tolkien called anyone who can play a stringed instrument “a wizard worthy of deep respect”
(Letters 173). Like the Elvish language. Lewis was thinking of Sam Gamgee when he wrote
this haunting phrase in his London Times obituary for Tolkien: “He had
been inside language.S.

Many phonologists
today don’t use the term: they prefer the term approximant. Let’s start with the phonological term liquid.”
Poetry. In fact. Thomas
Shippey argued in a 1991 MLA paper that one cause of the demise of
philology was its overemphasis on phonology)— that whole science. share at least two elements: the medium of sound and the phenomenon of rhythm. what
we study when we look at the phonology of vowels is merely a specialized
27
. Tolkien could. and “lyric” means “of the lyre” (a stringed instrument
requiring a wizard to play it. he could do it in a prose
that sings. blissfully indifferent to the jargon. poetry. and
philology. for one. about Grimm’s Law? Who could pipe a tune to
‘The Semi-vocalization of Post-liquid palato-velars in Middle English’?”
Well. but not touching. But consider: the non-musician might react the same
way to a discussion of “Homotonality and the Tonic Minor in Mozart’s
Italian Overtures”— and yet appreciate the beauty of that homotonality
upon hearing the overtures.
First we need to take some of the sting out of that philological jargon. “Is he kidding? What in the world is
musical. For the whole science of phonology. as in the
letter r.” and thinks we couldn’t be farther from the
beauties of language. a major branch of what used to be called philology (indeed. as in the letter l. But though
the name has changed.
Connecting poetry with music is one thing — the essence of poetry is
the lyric impulse. “is music made speakable” (162). or even lyrical. Already. or lightly touching and directing voiced air around the sides of
the tongue. All three disciplines. No wonder Sam
felt he was inside a song. and poetry
is not ornamented prose. But philolog y? I can hear the skeptics turning the pages. music. the concept has not: it is a sound produced by placing the tongue near. and what’s more. Let’s just
listen to what Tolkien does with the semi-vocalization of post-liquid
palato-velar. Even
those who are still here are saying. I say. Poetry is fallen music. he elaborates.
is the human branch of a science crucial to music: acoustics. in this description. and prose is fallen poetry.“Inside a Song” (Holmes)
music are more widely admitted. As the neo–Thomist philosopher Peter Kreeft put it
in The Philosophy of Tolkien: “Music is not ornamented poetry. we will look at Tolkien’s comments on the
lyre below).”
The non-philologist hears jargon like “semi-vocalization” and “postliquid” and “palato-velar. and then decide how far it is from music. the roof of the mouth. prose that is “music made speakable. the connection
with music should be dawning on us.

People” as they call us. since they have become
rare and shy of the “Lit.
What happened. to
form the r (straight out if you’re from the West Midlands of England like
Tolkien. but in modern English it
doesn’t: to me. In some languages
the exact position would make a difference. But if we remember that what
that sequence of letters represents is a change in sounds. the speaker (or singer) determines the
vowel by changing the shape and volume of air passing through her mouth. bent backwards if you’re a Yank like me). late in the Old English period and early in Middle
English — the process had already begun when Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s
son fell at the Battle of Maldon — was that the palato-velars changed. we’re back on the
trail of music again. (Repeat the ﬁrst syllable of each name in rapid succession and
you will feel the very slight shift in tongue position: Gæ / Gah. To make sure we stay there.Middle-earth Minstrel
version of the acoustics of wind instruments. could tell you
that Gandalf begins with a voiced palatal stop and Gollum with a voiced
velar stop. the singer uses a valve
called the tongue. Again.
But there’s more to philology than phonology.1 And it is the position of the tongue that determines the
liquids: pointed at the alveolar ridge. the
non-philologist can look at a consonant chart illustrating Grimm’s Law
and see only a linear progression of letters. that bump in back of the teeth. let’s look at the particular historical sound change we have picked out: the semi-vocalization of
post-liquid palato-velars. touching that ridge
lightly to form the l.) For speakers of English it doesn’t matter whether a g is palatal or velar. The
sound of our particular palato-velar — what is a palato-velar? I suppose
palato-velars need some description nowadays. Now that we know that liquids are l ’s and r’s. just as a
28
.
that phrase makes a little more sense: it’s something about what happens
to palato-velars when they come after liquids in a word. What fascinated
Tolkien was the historical development of letters and words. They are (or were) sounds
caused by stopping the ﬂow of air with the back of the tongue pressed
against the roof of the mouth — either the hard part toward the center (the
palate) or the softer part toward the back (the velum). Just as the clarinetist determines what note she plays by changing the shape and volume of the air
passing through her instrument. a modern Yank.
The clarinetist uses valves to affect those changes. the ﬁrst sound in Gandalf sounds identical to the ﬁrst sound in Gollum. even though the philologist. whose ear
should be as ﬁnely trained as that of a good piano tuner.

Ancrene Wisse 186. The spelling
suggests that the Gawain poet might have said fol3ode (with the voiced
fricative). The scribes recording the words of the poet who wrote The
Pearl and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight spelled the past tense of folwen
with a yogh (3). though spelled with an h. and doomed
to extinction. causing not an explosion like the g in
Gandalf. also a West Midlander. may have still been using the older pronunciation. instead of stopping the ﬂow
of air by pressing the tongue against the palate or velum. Let’s just call all the g sounds palato-velar stops. w.
The stop and the fricative. That’s
the palato-velar fricative. the beauty of this change for a poet is that a whole category of
words. words in which r and l were followed by. Tolkien’s favorite 14thcentury poet.“Inside a Song” (Holmes)
Gondorian couldn’t tell a Stoor from a Fallohide. respectively. had become a semivowel. or the sound the rest of us make when we’re gargling. Chaucer and Gower and Langland were all saying folwede. and just called them all
hobbits. In Old English the
ancestor of the word follow was folgian. or wallowed in a g or an h were mellowed from a stop or a fricative to a semi-
29
.
Now. the B-text of 1377.” In the very earliest Middle English which Tolkien made his
special study early in his career (the 13th-century West Midlands English
for which Tolkien coined the name “AB dialect” in 1929). It was spelled with a g. but a friction like the g in the aagh Charlie Brown makes when
he’s frustrated. Interestingly enough. or swallowed up. no longer used in English except for the unvoiced
form in Scots words like loch.
So what happens when Old English g and h. the previous sentence
sports a word that results from that sequence: follow. Sometimes. the g and the h. but his pronunciation was already old-fashioned. But by the time William Langland.
In Tolkien’s edition of Ancrene Wisse we read “Sikerliche his folhere
mot wis pine of his ﬂesch folhin his pine”—“His follower must follow his
suffering in the suffering of his own ﬂesh” (Tolkien.
Salu 161). the palatovelar stop and
fricative. he was
saying not folgian but folwen. l or r? Well. that funny-looking cross between a g and a y. but that g
was probably pronounced as a fricative unless it preceded a back vowel. follow a liquid.
as it did in the herald’s description of the feud of Ongensio at the end of
ﬁtt 40 of Beowulf: ond s I folgode / feorhgenns lan “and then he followed his
life-enemies. had
produced his second draft of Piers Plowman. the vocal musician can just slow it down a little. the palato-velar
is still a fricative.
Only they weren’t all stops. the Gawain-poet.

a subjective appeal which every speaker of every language
has felt. There is
a spell to these words. yet the scientiﬁc linguistics of Tolkien’s day was bent on denying. the multiplicity of
signiﬁers for the same signiﬁed in the history of classical rhetoric might
itself make de Saussure’s case: they can’t all be the “right” word). the rounded glide between vowels that we spell with a w. as far as Tolkien is concerned. de Saussure published his Cours de linguistique générale which established the distinction
between signiﬁé. Ferdinand de Saussure
was making some of their quaint notions of a language that was “isomorphic with reality” obsolete.Middle-earth Minstrel
vowel.2 Even as he was extending the work of
the great nineteenth-century historical philologists. the concept. for then
there would be but one language amongst all men” (3. an attraction for which Tolkien coined the term
phonaesthetic. if he has any ear for the music of a language. Locke’s
Essay Concerning Human Understanding presented the multiplicity of languages as sufﬁcient proof that it was “not by any natural connexion that
there is between particular articulate sounds and certain ideas.”
Now.” Nor is the observation original with de Saussure: the reversal
of the classical assumption of a natural connection between sound and
sense was one of the major projects of the so-called Enlightenment. the year of Tolkien’s momentous
“change of major” from classical to Germanic languages.2.1). and signiﬁcant. the “sound-image”— the polarities of signiﬁed and signiﬁer that are now taken as axiomatic both by linguistic and literary theorists anywhere Elves are no longer
cherished — places like France and Yale. It’s bad enough that de Saussure
hammered a barrier between the sound and the concept in a linguistic
sign: to add insult to injury. In its widest usage. the ﬁrst example he chose was arbor. In 1913. intuition and common sense (as well as anyone who has been
to France or Yale) tell us that de Saussure was right: “the linguistic sign is
arbitrary. Alexander Pope’s famous “Sound and Sense” passage from An Essay On Criticism
30
. this jargon term was used to refer to the narrative or dramatic poet’s painting of word pictures. The loss of the
Platonic conﬁdence in the “rightness” of a signiﬁcant for its signiﬁé can be
seen in 18th-century treatments of the renaissance rhetorical trope of hypotoposis. but it also included
what the modern critic calls “onomatopoeia.” (Indeed.
The mystical connection between the spoken word and the “true
name” that Plato espoused in Cratylus was to most twentieth-century linguists a pre-scientiﬁc superstition. “tree.

who
knows the history of the sundering of sound and sense. Tolkien told his friend that he derives aesthetic pleasure “from
the form of words (and especially from the fresh association of word-form
with word-sense)” (Letters 172). the metaphysical and not altogether arbitrary connection between signiﬁer and signiﬁed. “must be allowed. A judicious critic has very
justly observed. We have all known parents who go into the
maternity ward convinced that their ﬁnal choice is Alphonse for a boy and
Belinda for a girl — only to take one look at the kid and realize she doesn’t
look one bit like a Belinda. put it to use in
his extraordinary and Adam-like (or Bombadillian) gift for inventing
names. with a name like Shirley?
Tolkien. and that the words we suppose to echo the sense. have no other
resemblance than what arises from association” (186–187). even if he doesn’t know
why. then. So great was this gift that even Tolkien’s detractors acknowledged
it. In creating his names and his verse. led Augustan critics to question the
very assumption that made such poetry possible: patchworks of words that
“sounded like” the ideas they conveyed. lines 362–383). inﬂuenced by a similar passage the neo–Latin De Arte
Poetica of Marco Girolamo Vida (1527). it is a sundering of what God. he doesn’t look anything like an Alphonse — in
fact. knows that the Swiss philologist was not wholly right. But the good news is
that the sundered connection can be refreshed — by the philologist. but also the poet.” or has tried to name a child. The rarely-acknowledged pedigree of de Saussure’s distinction might be enough to convince
the modern reader that he was right.
31
. Tolkien’s emphasis on the word fresh is I
think the key to his quarrel with modern linguistics.“Inside a Song” (Holmes)
(1711. the poor kid looks like a Sid or a Shirley— and how is that going to
play at the country club? How can our poor baby expect to get into Yale.3
By the Age of Johnson.
or at least Adam.
who knows when the sound is carrying his sense.
in pursuit of what he called “phonaesthetic pleasure” (Letters 176). who understood this mystery.” wrote John Walker in
A Rhetorical Grammar (1785). In that same letter to Father Murray in which he called string-players
wizards. the theoretic rift between signiﬁer and
signiﬁed was already wide enough for a camel’s nose. However divorced
signiﬁer and signiﬁed are in our fallen world. had joined — that’s the bad news. Tolkien was exercising both skills. “That there is much of imagination
in this imitation of the sense by the sound of words.
let alone France. that it most frequently exists only in the fancy of the writer
or reader. But anyone who has read Tolkien’s
“Mythopoeia.

In the poem The Adventures of Tom Bombadil we have ten rhyme-words created by the
semi-vocalization of g or h: fellow. we have the palato-velar immediately following the liquid. hollow. follow. It captured the heart of a young Texas poet with the unlikely name of Tom Jones
when he was in college. But in the Old English ancestor of “willow.
As soon as they appear as rhyming words in a poem — the poetic term in
fact is itself one of our mutated palatovelar words: pairs of words that
rhyme in a structurally meaningful way are called rhyming fellows— as soon
as they appear in a poem. which
became the opening song of The Fantasticks. billow. sorrow. but the characteristic rhythm of all of Tom Bombadil’s dialogue in
The Lord of the Rings is built on the falling cadence of feminine endings.” welig. and swallow. pillow.
Tolkien does not incorporate quite so many of these mutated palatovelar words in any one place.
yellow. follow. willow. let’s turn back to our abandoned palato-velars. swallowing. In each stanza Jones
crammed as many of the mutated-liquid words he could: ﬁrst mellow. we are forced to notice a secondary effect of the
mutation that turns g and h into w: all of the words are trochees. berry. bellows. we encounter several of these
liquid-mutated palato-velars as rhyme words: fellow. and then follow and hollow. Not only does each
of the 134 lines of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil have a feminine ending. follow. wallowing. burrow.
Yet the word willow has other rhythmic implications. In Old English
words like folgian and holh. The song was called “Try To Remember. hollow from holh. In the “Tom Bombadil” poem.Middle-earth Minstrel
To illustrate. two-syllable words with the stress on the ﬁrst syllable.” The refrain was the single word we have looked at in its transformation from Old to Modern English: follow. Using these words as rhyming fellow
forces a two-syllable rhyme known as feminine rhyme. fellow. but the mention of the word willow should
signal to any Tolkien reader where I am going next: to the old Willowman of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and “The Old Forest” chapter of
The Lord of the Rings. “willow” from welig. we have
32
. willow. The
phonaesthetics of the post-liquid palato-velar is a thing of beauty.
ﬁnally ending where the song began with mellow. “billow” from Old Norse bylgja. the longest-running musical
in the history of the New York stage. which ﬁrst appeared
in the Oxford Magazine in February of 1934. Two-thirds of these
words began life in Old English with post-liquid palato-velars: “fellow”
from f `olaga. and he ﬁlled a whole song with them. then willow.

the name
Cherwell is also a doublet. wrapping around. or — and here’s where the sense of danger
comes from — enclosing.” The name Withywindle is what is called a doublet: both parts of the compound originally
conveyed the idea of bending. The loss is
obscured by the fact that both the Old English word welig and the Modern English word willow are trochees. He is engaged
in precisely the act which he told Fr. which will later ﬁll out to wilwe and then willow). “to bubble. and windle a word meaning “winding river”— which is exactly what the Cher in Cherwell means. Tolkien has revitalized an
image that has largely disappeared from the word willow. That original sense still survives in
the idiom “to well up. the willow breaks along the
river Cherwell. both in The Road to Middle-earth and Author
of the Century.” and its Latin cognate gives us the word valley. Shippey points out that the name Tolkien coins for the river
along which Tom Bombadil lives combines the elements of the real-life
Oxford landscape Tolkien is trying to evoke.
But something that Shippey does not examine is the fact that by giving us a fresh name for willow and winding. Chapter VI of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien called Tom Bombadil’s river the Withywindle. we
see two consonants come together by dropping a syllable. but also on the connection between signiﬁer and signiﬁed in words like Tree and Leaf (Author
63.“Inside a Song” (Holmes)
a vowel in between. Road 108).
All of this.
withy being a West Midlands word for willow. Murray gives him aesthetic pleasure:
“the fresh association of word-form with word-sense. Tom Shippey has given us a hint in his
discussion of Tom Bombadil. with both of its roots also bearing the concept
of bending or turning: cierran. The Cherwell is a stream which ﬂows past Addison’s Walk. however. It is this
imagery of winding and turning and above all else being wreathed in willows that Tolkien invokes in the two sentences with which he introduces
the Withywindle in Book One. in a rhythmic
process that both musicologists and phonologists call syncopation (welig ➝
welg.
33
. Lewis hammered out their differences not only
on the momentous implications of Christian myth.” originally from the same idea of turning.” and weallan.
something riven by the welling waters of a river (as in Rivendell).
where Tolkien and C. “to turn. For that matter. still touches only the “word form” part of
Tolkien’s phonaesthetics: how does it associate with the “word meaning”
part which Tolkien wants to make fresh? In the case of the imagery of the
willow on the bank of a stream. a vowel that is lost in the mutation.S. but if we look at the root form.

arched over with willows. each half-line) must have the same
number of stresses.
Tolkien almost imperceptibly ﬂung down a gauntlet to those who disguised their tin ear for the music of OE verse behind a sneer for its “foreign” sound. stressed and unstressed syllables alternating in
predictable patterns. In
Old English poetry.
The implication that Old English meter arose from the natural language
of Old English speech expresses a linguistic principle of metrical analysis
34
. with whom Tolkien engaged the issue of word order
in September of 1955). Middle or Modern (“On Translating” 62). assume that such an “inversion” (Tolkien objected
to that term) is a facile attempt at archaism.” or “In a hole in the ground there
lived”) is in fact exclusively modern.
whether prose or poetry. Tolkien is clearly risking the
near-passive construction in order to produce the rhythmic echo of dark
river and brown water.
but modern English prose. but in the metrical patterns of Old English verse. Tolkien knew bloody well that the “foreign” note in English
verse came from imported metrical schemes from Romance languages. each participle linked by the preposition with to the word willow: “bordered with ancient willows. and its music
must be appreciated not in terms of the meters we know from Modern
and Middle English poetry. Old. When Tolkien explained his
understanding of Old English prosody — which he did quite succinctly in
his preface to Hall’s translation in Wrenn’s edition of Beowulf (1940)— he
touched on his theory of phonaesthetics without using the word (which he
had perhaps not yet coined). since the expletive use of there was
not a feature of Old English. and even everyday conversation. But this wording (whether it
be “In the midst of it there wound. that
the rhythms of OE verse still lived not only in Modern English poetry. In this case. but may vary in the number and position of unstressed
syllables. Modernists (including friends
like Hugh Brogan. After outlining the six possible patterns in
the OE half-line according to the system devised by Eduard Sievers. What follows is a string of four parallel participial
phrases. The anastrophe in this clause — the reversal in word order forced by
the expletive use of “there”— is puzzling. and ﬂecked with thousands of faded willow-leaves. In “On Translating Beowulf ” he argued that the six patterns of stress that Sievers
identiﬁed can be found in any randomly-chosen passage of English. blocked
with fallen willows.”
Here the rhythmical pattern is a bit more complex. or syllables of secondary stress.Middle-earth Minstrel
“In the midst of it there wound lazily a dark river of brown water”
(115). each line (in fact.

phrases. arched over with willows.“Inside a Song” (Holmes)
formulated by linguist Roman Jakobson and applied to Tolkien’s verse by
Geoffrey Russom: “Units of metrical form (metrical positions. In neoclassic terms it
is perfect trochaic trimeter: “blócked with fállen wíllows. then surely the passage
we have chosen.
even if by the idea of “intention” we are invoking not Tolkien’s prodigious
35
. each has only three stressed syllables. sentences)” (Russom 53). The ﬁrst. And although the ﬁrst
phrase has one syllable more than the second (bordered with ancient willows.” But then the
last phrase reminds us that we are hearing prose.
And the third phrase is equal to the other two.
clauses. the mature work of a man who had spent his life teaching that ancient language. “árched óver with wíllows” begins with what the neoclassics would
call a spondee (or a pyrrhic substitution.4 but in the
more general way that the metrical weight of a phrase is heard and felt in
native English verse.” translating Senkung).”
It is still a falling meter.” because the traditional system
employed since the renaissance to designate English verse patterns was borrowed from the Greeks via the Romans via the French and Italians. whose ear was attuned to them.” The second. and
involves recurring patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables (or in Greek
and Latin verse. translating Sievers’s Hebung) and falling off to one or more
unstressed syllables (or “dips.
If Tolkien was conﬁdent that any passage in Modern English would
demonstrate the rhythmic patterns of Old English. would betray
those rhythms. And it does — not only in the programmatic way that
Tolkien was talking about in the essay on translating Beowulf. 7. feet. The double stress of the clash (árched ó-) causes a corresponding doubling of the unstressed syllable. verses)
are projected from units of natural language (syllables. “with. but with an extra unaccented syllable. long and short). Each
phrase is different. see Russom 56). however. but Tolkien.” is roughly
trochaic trimeter. 6). I emphasize “native. They would have to be considered metrically equal. heard as a dactyl in “óver with. Yet surely the added beats are intentional. called a “clash”: two stressed syllables coming together. “bórdered with áncient wíllows. the rhythms we can manifestly hear in
Tolkien’s description of the River Withywindle have no clear pattern. not verse: it does not
resolve into three stressed beats: “and ﬂécked with thóusands of fáded wíllow-léaves”—ﬁve stresses in all.
By such neoclassical measure. words.
again using Sievers’s language. starting on the stress (or “lift” as Tolkien
called it.

The master of prose rhythm for the
ancient world was Cicero. In European prose rhythms. The three metrically equal phrases all
end with an extra unaccented syllable. the sonata is
over.
blocked with fallen willows.
arched over with willows.
and ﬂecked with thousands of faded willow-leaves. “Hypochondriacs. but his ear for rhythm. however.
Well. ends
with the stressed monosyllable “leaves. and his prose was marked by a rhythmic device
the Romans called the clausula. we know that the piece is over.
this beast is a quadruped) is the essence of the periodic sentence. there is
abundant precedent for this pattern. we know the sentence
has concluded. Nash enjoyed setting a severely truncated rhyme against a just-as-severely hypermetric
rhyming fellow. It’s safe to applaud now. we have strayed a bit from the phonological analysis into metrical analysis.
The tension of waiting for the other shoe to drop (or in this case. When we hear the satisfying completion of the chord. The three successive three-beat phrases create the expectation of the pattern. we expect closure within three beats.
But note how much more like music metrical analysis is compared to
rhetorical analysis. but we’ll return to the music of phonology in a moment. In terms
of rhetorical tropes. the fourth.”
But the sense of ﬁnality in this periodic sentence of Tolkien’s is also
due to an additional metrical trick. as in his poem.”
The ﬁnal clause. as well as
one of Ogden Nash’s favorite comic rhyme techniques. Tolkien’s winding willow-sentence is a tricolon (pat-
36
. sort of a prose-rhythm version of the resolution of a chord in a piano sonata. in addition to bearing additional syllables. When we reach the
speciﬁc patterned ending of a sentence in Cicero.Middle-earth Minstrel
intellect. When closure
is postponed in the fourth clause. another rhythmical difference between
the ﬁrst three phrases and the last. we experience a sense of ﬁnality that
coincides with the end of the sentence — just as in Cicero’s clausula.” We can see it (and hear it) if we stacked the
clauses in stanzaic form:
bordered with ancient willows. which is also based on patterns of repetition. the so-called “feminine ending.” The chord resolves. Tolkien prepares us for the ending by postponing it with
the extra syllables. or in
the extra foot of the Alexandrine that ends each stanza in the mostly-pentameter “Spenserian Stanza.

smash.
The skeptic of “inherent meaning” would ﬁnd the onomatopoetic
nature of the word ﬂutter (historical linguists prefer the term “echoic” or
“imitative” for such etymologies) merely an illusion. softly. Each clause resolves to a single pattern:
[past participle] + with +
bordered
arched over
blocked
ﬂecked
[variation]
[adjective] + willows
ancient
fallen
[no adj. conveys etymologically the image of
twisting and curving. It is simply an iter-
37
.” the next sentence only uses the word “willow” once. But so does “ﬂuttering. snap. too: surely something that “ﬂutters” cannot be as menacing
as the sound-sensical monosyllables clap.
After this fourfold repetition of the key semivocalized palato-velar in
“willow. as we noted above.” we are convinced that Shippey’s assessment of this passage (Author 63. With the softness of a sound like “ﬂuttering. But as with the seemingly harmless willow.” Identifying the part of
speech (adjective) suggests yet another type of pattern. “with
willows”).
pound. “ancient” and “fallen. the pattern of this
passage becomes much more absolute.]
faded
[variation]
Variations include the null adjective in the third clause. yellow. but is sprinkled with other l-sounds. Road 108)
applies here. a glance at the philological history of the word refreshes the “fresh association” of ﬂuttering with
reeling and writhing (if not the last of the 3 R’s. valley —
the last of which. rhythmatic)— and an
archetypal connection between such wavelike undulation and menacing
evil. In grammatical analysis. and the substitution of “willow leaves” for “willows” at the end.” a word which at ﬁrst glance
seems to be onomatopoetic or hypotopical in the Alexander-Pope-sense
noted earlier. rustling. clash.“Inside a Song” (Holmes)
tern of three) of epistrophe (clauses ending with the same words. with which we
began our study: grammatical. ﬂuttering. gentle. Yet even here there is considerable variation in the rhetorical
analysis: the repeated “with willows” appears in the ﬁrst and third clauses
with intervening adjectives. smack of the horrible goblin song in Chapter 4 of The Hobbit. crash. crush. the insertion of a
further modiﬁer “thousands of ” in the fourth. swish.

But the back-and-forth imagery
of the iterative sufﬁx-erian that gives us the Old English ancestor of ﬂutter
excites the primitive association between snakelike movements of water and
the lurkers below such as the sea-monsters Beowulf stirred up in his swimming contest with Breca. not curved”. bent over
like an animal..
the welling waters.” is in the modern English wreath (Road
148–150)..
Medieval theologians... “to twist. another word for rolling water such as we
have seen in the etymologies of Middle-earth’s Withywindle and Oxford’s
Cherwell...
[Not a whit could he
far in the ﬂoodwaves swim from me.. but the principle is also
38
.
wado weallende. which as Shippey has demonstrated was connected with OE wrisan. self-centered.oò òæt unc ﬂÉd tÉdrIf.until the ﬂood parted us...
The imagery of bending that we see in the deceptively menacing willow
and in the twisted souls of the Ringwraiths was standard medieval iconography that Lewis certainly would have known had he never met Tolkien. But it need not be. closer to the ground (the lowest and most curved animal
being the serpent). but righteous
(the etymologies of both words suggesting “straight.] (541 –546).S.
. long before anthropologists re-invented the term.Middle-earth Minstrel
ative form of the word ﬂoat. and that may be so.
The best-known association in Tolkien between wriggling and the
monstrous is of course wraith. Lewis’s iconography of evil as “bent” in
his space novel Out of the Silent Planet was inﬂuenced by Tolkien’s philological understanding of wraiths. and closed in on himself. we call
a 90° angle “right” because in early Modern English a straight line was
called a “right line”).
called unfallen man homo erectus— that is.
. The Latin cognate pluere means “to rain.” Nothing too ominous there.. The passage is awash with cognates for the wriggle-words we have been examining..” and the Greek plein
“to swim. not only upright.
Shippey assumes that C..
ﬂÉdˆy òum feor
NÉ h` wiht fram m`
ﬂ`otan meahte. The iconography is immediately recognizable from Genesis. But fallen man became homo incurvatus.

Leviathan evokes thoughts of Jörmungandr.” and
the related noun livyd h.word.
crummie (German krumm).
including the English words crooked and creep. and crookedness or bentness has so far escaped the
context of the sounds of those words.
And it is with such words that we creep our crooked way back to the
sounds of words.” and
is cognate with a number of words beginning kr. crumpet. the Mis gars sormr
or “World-worm. see Marchand 326). Recent exposure in The Pirates of the Caribbean has limited philological discussion of
this monster’s name to debates about its pronunciation — whether it rhymes
with bracken or bacon. Yet its Norwegian descendent. does.: cramp (German krampf ).in Germanic languages. That monster deﬁnitely twines around the world. whom Thor is destined to slay
at the end of the world. crinkle. the Old Testament had its
own writhing menace beyond the serpent of Eden. and we do need to return to the main topic of philological music. but men have
had recourse to many calculations” (7:29). crumple. as Chaucerians will recall when they think of
the Squire’s “lokkes crulle as they were leyd in presse” (General Prologue
81).5
In addition to Genesis and Ecclesiastes. cruller. Even the word curl itself
was originally a cr. and of the
related words crèche and crib. cradle (think of the curved rockers. its name does not apparently originate in any word
for twisting. but etymologically it is a wraith or a writhing wreath: the name
is conjectured to come from the Hebrew verb D[]M. But a consideration of the multitude of words in English alone cognate with kraken might shake our
enlightened conviction that any link between a sound and an idea is arbitrary. fear. Our discussion of the connection between evil. “wreath. livyatan.
yet unlike Leviathan. crawl. creep (German kriechen).“Inside a Song” (Holmes)
spelled out by Ecclesiastes: “God made mankind straight. “coiled. are generally dead ends in Tolkien
studies. croup. creek. and thence back to music. Is there then a mysterious connection between the phonemes [k] and
[r]? Surely the gathering of so many sounds cannot be mere coincidence?
39
.”6 Etymological and mythological speculations in Hebrew. the kraken. To the student of
the Eddas. cringe. garland. however.” the evil spawn of Loki. In Job it is called
Leviathan. If we trace their etymologies there is some connection with the idea
of curving and the onset cr. But its etymology is an exact match with that of
leviathan: the Norwegian dialect word krake means “a twisted thing.
But the connection with the languages and mythologies Tolkien taught
should occur to the reader with “Northern” sensibilities.

snip / snap. smash
or crack.words — a compromise very close to the phenomenon Tolkien dubbed “phonaesthetics. jiggle / joggle.
as we have seen. away from the
phonaestheme.
sang.
40
. The changes in vowels which signal
grammatical changes in Germanic verbs are what Jacob Grimm and his
disciples called ablaut.R. song. is not to say that the connection is inherent or natural. in one of two ways. and Tolkien uses it to create a unique musical effect in his “Tom Bombadil” poem. as we have seen. a “sound image.”
there is no proliferation of cr. and the lw pattern that is prevalent — the result. ridden or sing. a term revived in the twentieth century.”
In 1930. rode. But though words of similar meaning can cluster around
a phonaestheme such as cr-. so that smash and smack are alienated from the cr. or they can keep the initial (and sometimes ﬁnal) root consonants
but alter the vowel in a way that tends to follow the ablaut patterns of
English. by moving the tongue to change the shape and volume
of the vocal space within the mouth. As early as 1836. smack. sung.
But it is not altogether arbitrary: it is indeed dependent on the phonetic
tastes of the inventor of the word.
In ablaut we have another philological term which reminds us of the
approximation of phonology to music. Either they can rhyme. Thus chitter / chatter. they can also radiate out.
In the Willow-man scenes of The Lord of the Rings. “The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.7
English philologists at the end of the nineteenth century borrowed a French
coinage from Greek. as crash. linguist J. there is a linguistic via media between “inherent
meaning” and sheer coincidence in this collocation of cr. And Tolkien’s references to phonaesthetics were always in the context of the sub-creation of words.phonaestheme (though notice the tendency to cluster around a new phonaestheme. and the earlier
poem on which they were based. such as modern English ride. To
say that [kr] is a phonaestheme. But the
consistency of a consonant sound is not the only kind of phonaestheme. for the bearing of meaning by sound.” for the concept of bending or twisting.words. Variations in vowels are achieved.
sm-). of the semivocalized post-liquid palatovelar — may not meet the criterion of a phonaestheme. Wilhelm von Humboldt had considered a similar
concept under the name iconism. apophonie. Firth coined the term “phonaestheme” for a phonological unit which conveys a speciﬁc idea seemingly independent of meaning (211).
There is also the variability of vowel sounds known as ablaut phonaesthesia.Middle-earth Minstrel
As it turns out.

like any
modern poet. Badger-brock. Tom
Bombadil. or compared to French. beginning with cr. but did not exist in Old
English (“On Translating” 64).
In his “Prefatory Remarks” to Wrenn’s 1940 edition of the Clark Hall
translation of Beowulf.“Inside a Song” (Holmes)
In “The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. and the prey. not accentual verse: long-short rather than lift-dip). argues for the metrical versatility of English
compared to Italian. as well. rendering them in accentual verse
as dactyls (in Siever’s terms as translated by Tolkien. but not sdrucciola. lift-dip-dip). they
ain’t.) advances the ablaut series of ejaculations
that announces the confrontation between each successive threat (Goldberry. but each succeeding threat or enemy
(none.” the poem in which Tolkien
ﬁrst introduced the character in 1934. each of
the antagonists has a name in roughly the same rhythmic pattern. as we can see by Tolkien’s Sieverean analysis of those words in the “Prefatory Remarks” (“On Translating” 68). are. dwellers/bellows). alas. quite common in modern English. I say
“roughly. The Lit. Sidney. rendered a mite tonedeaf by a pedagogy that forces Germanic rhythms into Greek molds.” because Tolkien might have taken issue with Sir Philip Sidney’s
adoption of the Italian term sdrucciola for this kind of dactyl. wallowing. But
Tolkien’s ear for the music of poetic rhythm was subtler than that — and
it was subtler undoubtedly because his training in metrical analysis was
not just a matter of Lit. which he illustrated with the modern English words handily and instantly. but Lang. with emphasis on the ﬁrst).. willow/pillow. in
The Defense of Poesy (1595). Willow-man. Germanic metrics cannot do with a binary pattern borrowed from
Greek through Latin (which in any event was designed to measure quantitative. would consider each of Tom Bombadil’s antagonists to be
possible rhyming-fellows for a sdrucciola. as Sidney observed. hollow/follow.
which has masculine and feminine.
burrow/sorrow. swallowing. Barrow-wight). no. might
object. which has only feminine rhyme and sdrucciola (longshort-short. Sidney.-trained ear. not only are many of the rhymes
(all feminine) involved with our friends the semi-vocalized palato-velars
(fellow/yellow.
Even that “enemies list” is musical in invention: in a poem in which
all rhymes are feminine (two-syllable. but not masculine. Tolkien observed that a pure dactyl. as femina/semina). “Not exist! The dactyl not exist in Old English? What about g¨s s`aro (battle-armor) or famig-heals (foamy-necked) or s ancedon (thanked)?
Ain’t they dactyls?” Well. What classi-
41
.

Similarly. whether you call it dactyl or sdrucciola.
This brief discussion of Tolkien’s wizardry with the music of phonology is only a sketch. ostensibly a greeting or the semantically-empty
utterance which linguist Bronislaw Malinowski called “phatic communion” (Malinowski 315). Goldberry says “Hey. and Barrow-wight’s “hoo!” is a ghoulish (or owlish) shout.Middle-earth Minstrel
cal metrics describes as a single pattern. Each syllable is
a nonsense syllable. rising up and yet further back (mid-back): ho. and
Bárrow-wìght— as “broken fall” (Db).
So now that we have four antagonists with similar but distinct
rhythms to their names. Willow-man’s “ha!” is deﬁnitely a “gotcha!” Badger-Brock’s exclamation is “ho!.” Beowulf
730). and perhaps even a stretch in connecting Tolkien’s
42
. “subordinate stress. Tom Bombadil!” but the
colloquial friendliness of “hey!” is ironically undercut by the fact that
she expresses it while attempting to drown Tom. and the division of both
axes into three positions is arbitrary. see
Tolkien’s Chart.” which can also express the predator’s delight in the
prey. Bádger-bròck. is two distinct patterns in Old English verse: Sievers type Da (which
Tolkien calls “falling by stages”). or
as Tolkien called it. and no mark
for an unaccented syllable. dropping down and back to the lowest portion of the central
third (low-central): ha. and
then rising again to the highest back position (high-back): hu. The
ablaut series makes a circuit of the vocal chamber in which vowel-music
is played: beginning in the middle portion of the front third (midfront): hey. “On Translating” 62). each
antagonist hails Tom with an ejaculatory syllable which moves progressively backward in the mouth as the ablaut progresses. and Db (which he calls “broken fall”. “then his mind laughed. what about this ablaut series? In the poem. a secondary. as Grendel laughed at the prospect of
Beowulf ’s men (pI his mÉd IhlÉg. but the position of each of these vowels in the mouth could be fairly represented by the chart on the following
page. because Old English metrical analysis requires a third term between stressed and unstressed. we would mark Góldbèrry as the “falling by
stages” type (Da) and the other three —Wíllow-màn. Yet laughter can be the bloodthirsty “ha-ha!” of the
predator in cornering its prey. There are
numerous ways of distinguishing vowel positions. the syllable
“ha!” which Willow-man blasts at Tom is to the English ear a phonaestheme for laughter.” Using the acute accent (´) for a
strong stress and the grave accent (`) for a subordinate stress.

As he develops his theme. fol. “I never imagined that it could ever be my fate —”
Tolkien told his audience.” says Tolkien. “If I do address this society then. connected Old English poetry with the one most associated
with it: the harp. not the other way around. and I have alluded to it once already. the history
of the word tells us that the Romance languages borrowed it from Germanic. A
man little endowed by nature and less instructed by study in such matters would be hard to ﬁnd. “or fortune — to address a Musical society. though he
acknowledges his ignorance of the history of harps or harp music (though
one did survive as part of the Sutton Hoo archaeological ﬁnd). because. A 30/1. 96). but there is one point of contact with musicology in Tolkien’s research. in awe of all who play stringed
instruments. and when
43
. “The name at least is Germanic. Norway. For if
the connection of Old English metrics with music is a stretch. it is chieﬂy to address a question to it: what function can it be
imagined that the harp played in the recitation of verse composed in the
ancient English manner?” (MS. Tolkien’s argument reveals how much
philology can contribute to musical knowledge. North Germany. Denmark. England. the Lincoln Musical Society — Tolkien. On the one occasion he was pressed to address a group of musicians — in this case. it is a stretch
that Tolkien himself made.” Yet. he continues. though with some apology. Sweden. beyond
doubt. and is “ancient in all the northern Gmc tongues of
Iceland.“Inside a Song” (Holmes)
art with music as a discipline.

“inside
a Song. 1166–1167. Bonaventure. however. Walker cites The Rambler No. taking examples ﬁrst cited by the ﬁrst-century B. 146–147. reveal many of the typical patterns of Old
English verse Tolkien speciﬁes in his essay: Sievers type A. trans. But the English whistling tradition is quite
intricate musically.Middle-earth Minstrel
the name appears elsewhere (as in the Romance languages) it is borrowed
from the North Southwards: not the reverse” (fol. Type E does not appear in this brief passage.
4. nor does the
variation on type D that Tolkien calls “falling by stages. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
(New York: St.E. eds. type C. 2. On the Song of Songs IV.” see the
entry under that name in John Clute and John Grant. type B. In a recent study of Luther’s use of these terms. See also St. like Sam Gamgee. broken fall: wóund | lázily. The fact that
what I herein call the “enlightenment” attack on supposedly “classical” notions of language
was already inherent in Plato demonstrates either my own hypocrisy or the enlightenment’s
genius for re-inventing the wheel. but the term homo incurvatus seems to belong
to Bernard. Irene Edmonds (Kalamazoo. Tolkien could
not ﬁddle. 96).. and ng). Matt Jenson has argued that the
idea behind them stems from Augustine.
5. MI:
Cistercian. is a bit disingenuous. 96). NY: Fran-
44
. leave them feeling as if they were.
and especially Philotheus Boehner’s commentary in his edition (St. where Johnson illustrates the phenomenon of sound echoing sense in Homer. For the fairy-story motif of the “true name. see
Bernard of Clairvaux.
2. if they
were lucky.
or presses back against the throat to produce non-nasal sounds (every other consonant). offering
“something about the nature and structure of this verse — from a harpist
and whistler’s point of view” (fol.” but I hope that the appearance
of four of the six types in the space of thirty-two words is enough to prove Tolkien’s
point.
but that essay has only a peripheral relation to the issue of sound and sense. 1997). The “judicious critic” was Samuel Johnson. as I do throughout this
essay. 966. The passage quoted does.”
Notes
1. Like Themistocles.C. It could be argued that the human vocal instrument does involve one other valve:
the uvula. falling-falling: blócked with |
fállen.
The rest of the lecture is a talk on Old English metrics that largely
parallels his “Prefatory Remarks” for the Clark Hall Beowulf. Martin’s. Identifying the theory of sound-symbolism with Plato. rising-rising: the áir | was thíck. which pulls forward from the throat to produce nasal sounds (m. Patrologia Latinae 183.7. Itinerarium Mentis in Deum 1.
3. Sermo LXXX. 93. rhetorician
Dionysius of Halicarnassus. n. Walker must
have had in mind Rambler 92. Bonaventure. nor could he harp. Sermones in Cantica. type
D. clashing: of brówn | wáter. so even “a whistler’s point of view” might tempt the
cellists or violinists from Lincoln in his audience — maybe even. 1980). as in the dialogue Cratylus Plato has Socrates back away from
the theory when presented with evidence to the contrary by Hermogenes.

R. Jr. 2000. Rev. “Recent Writings on Old English.
Works Cited
De Saussure.
Firth J. New York: Houghton Mifﬂin. 1946. Altgermanische Metrik. Early English Text Society No.
Russom. Niemeyer.
Locke. trans. J.” A paper read at the 107th Convention of the
Modern Language Association. 1952. Halle: M.
_____. Brace. New York: Harcourt. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. See William L. The Meaning of Meaning. 1991. 53–69. edited from MS. 1893. Wimsatt. Course in General Linguistics. New York: Houghton Mifﬂin. “The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages. 1955.
Tolkien. and Isaiah 27:1. in its linguistic sense. Accessed from
http://members. London: Burns and Oates.
Nash.
Salu. Charles Bally and Albert Reidlinger. 296–336. Ogden and I.” Supplement I to
C. San Francisco.. B.” In
George Clark and Daniel Timmons. Psalm 74: 14. Ancrene Wisse: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle. and Speech. 12. 1966. Vol.R.
6.
Malinowski. John. Alabama Linguistic and Philological Series #13. The noun livyd h appears only twice. New
York: Philosophical Library.
Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
Luther. 1916. www. and Expanded Ed.com/mcnelis/AEstell/Shippey1. “Oh to Be Odd!” Free Wheeling. J. In Robert Maynard Hutchins. Tom. Jenson’s study is The Gravity of Sin: Augustine.” London and New York: T&T Clark.
Sievers. 174. Mary. London: Greenwood.aol. in which the instructions
of one’s father are described as “a garland to grace your head. Eighth Ed. trans. 2004.
Marchand. Corpus Christi College Cambridge 402. Wade Baskin. Eduard. Geoffrey. Grand Rapids. 1930. December 28. and Barth on “Homo incurvatus in se. The Road to Middle-earth.K. Literary critics will think of the phrase “verbal icon” in relation to an inﬂuential
book of that name by the formalist critic and literary theorist W. however.com). K.
ed. introduction
by N. Ogden.R. Paris: Payot. MI:
Eerdmans. Cours de linguistique générale. “Tolkien’s Versecraft in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings..
2006. A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament.html August 10.
_____.
7. 1962.R. 112–113. London: Oxford University Press.
ed. Author of the Century. 1971.” and Proverbs 4:9 where
Wisdom is personiﬁed as a “supreme” woman who will “set a garland of grace on your
head” (New International Version. Ker. New York: Simon and Schuster. Holladay. London: Oxford University Press. 35. Great Books of the Western World. The standard Biblical references to Leviathan are Job 41.
2003. Richards. 1956). The
Verbal Icon: Studies in the Meaning of Poetry (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.
45
. the term iconism was revived in the ﬁrst decade of
the twentieth century in Charles Saunders Pierce’s theory of signs. 249.“Inside a Song” (Holmes)
ciscan Institute.
1954).biblegaeway.
Shippey. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica.A. The Categories and Types of Present-day English Word-Formation: A Synchronic-Diachronic Approach.R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances. 2000. Hans.R. Ferdinand.
97. Ed. 1931. in Proverbs 1:9. The Tongues of Men. 1959. and World. Ancrene Riwle. n.

ultimately. Both desire the company of
the Elves and eventually ﬁnd themselves sailing West. is driven to the land of the Elves by an intense
sea-longing where he later hears and records the history of the ﬁrst age of
Middle-earth. the idea of longing manifests itself as an intense. those mortals who are troubled by sea-longing are frequently poets. What is also signiﬁcant. While this story was ultimately abandoned. may be considered as representative of this central ﬁgure. Eriol. is the close association between
this idea of longing and the concept of poetry. who
themselves are strongly associated both with poetry and the idea of long-
47
. the mariner
ﬁgure haunted by a longing for the West remained present in both The
Lost Road of the 1930s and The Notion Club Papers some ﬁfteen years later. however.
the central mariner ﬁgure in one of his earliest mythological conceptions.
The Cottage of Lost Play. They are also close friends with the Elves. and to a lesser extent Bilbo. restless desire to
sail over the western seas and.
In The Lord of the Rings. Frodo. If we may generalize for a moment on the basis of the examples
above.” published in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil in 1961.
In Tolkien’s mythology. the idea of longing takes on a more somber
tone.´
Æfre
me strongode longas:
Songs of Exile
in the Mortal Realms1
Peter Wilkin
Tolkien remained consistently preoccupied with the idea of longing
throughout the long and complex development of his legendarium. In Tolkien’s later
poems such as “Sea-bell” and “The Last Ship. to reach the deathless lands
beyond.

begins to play. human
creativity in its various manifestations. The emphasis in the last stanza of
Gildor’s song is placed on the separation of Valinor and Middle-earth and
the consequent sundering of the High Elves. of the making of the world and the paradise of Valinor. the ﬁrst encounter between Elves and
mortals makes more explicit the Elves’ particular association with the longing for the West. it is possible
to see a deeper signiﬁcance attached to this theme. There are several indications that Tolkien located the fundamental source of Art.
eventually produces the greatest mortal heroes of The Silmarillion. as I will show.3 The most signiﬁcant example of such an
encounter occurs in The Silmarillion.” they “remember” Elbereth’s “starlight on
the Western seas. Hiding in the woods. The evidence for this argument will be reserved for the second and ﬁnal section of this discussion.2 At another level.7 On the Fields of Cormallen.4 This tribe of Men. This time. in the chapter entitled “Of the Coming of Men into the West” when Finrod ﬁrst comes across a group of Men
sleeping around a campﬁre. most notably. Legolas sings a song
expressing a similar desire. whether from Lothlórien or
Mirkwood. the only mortal in the First Age to reach
Aman.”5 The longing of the Elves for the West is reiterated in
several other instances where we hear the Elves sing.
The ﬁrst encounters between mortals and Elves that occur in The
Hobbit. including. In Rivendell another
poem about Elbereth is sung in Sindarin in the Hall of Fire. he waits for them to fall
asleep and then. Despite the differences between the various
Elves the hobbits encounter on their journey.
In The Fellowship of the Ring. we see most clearly the Elves’ own yearning to make the journey over the sea. however. Eärendil. that is. The
stories in his song. however.Middle-earth Minstrel
ing for the West. Despite their lingering “in
this far land beneath the trees. As in The Silmarillion and The Hobbit.
48
. come “as clear visions before their eyes” and confer deep wisdom on
those who are especially moved. the hobbits hear
the sound of Gildor’s hymn to Elbereth before they actually catch sight of
the Elves. the same restless longing stirs them. taking up one of their rude harps. the House of Bëor. in the natural human desire for and
corresponding inability to attain eternal life. The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion are all initiated by the
hearing of poetry and music.6 In Lothlórien Galadriel recalls the exile of the Noldor in Middle-earth and her
desire to sail back West in two songs she sings to the Fellowship as they
leave Caras Galadon.

the same cannot generally be said of the Elves’ counterparts. Galadriel’s warning. but for a (very hobbit-like) “lighted inn. in the last chapter of The Return of the King. those
peculiar hobbits mentioned above are indeed stirred by a longing comparable to that of the Elves. however. This instance would seem to suggest
some kind of connection between the yearnings expressed in the two songs.9
The Elves’ association with exile is subsequently reinforced throughout
The Lord of the Rings. Elrond and Galadriel.10 The story
of the Elves’ return into the West focuses especially on Legolas. Men. particularly in Rivendell and Lothlórien. Pippin and a few strange hobbits who are said to have gone away
with the Elves. Legolas’
own people never undertook the great journey to the West in the ﬁrst
place. passed
on to Legolas by Gandalf in Fangorn Forest. With notable exceptions such as Aragorn. Whereas the latter were part
of the tragic history of the Exile of the Noldor from Valinor in the First
Age.
Merry.” also deals with a kind of yearning. On the other hand. remained in Mirkwood at a distance from the larger politics of the Noldorin princes. Frodo. the Sindar. While Elves such
as Gildor and Galadriel retain a memory of the bliss of Valinor.´ me strongode longas (Wilkin)
Æfre
Interestingly. Sam. After his hymn to Elbereth. The poem most recited by Bilbo and Frodo.
who represents a very different tradition from other important Elves in the
story such as Gildor.
“The Road Goes Ever On. Legolas and his kindred.8 neither the Men of Gondor and Rohan. nor the hobbits
of Hobbiton and Bree seem to feel the strange disquiet that takes Bilbo
over the mountains to Rivendell a second time. Bilbo. not explicitly for the West perhaps. Legolas clearly shares
the innate Elvish desire to return to the West. Frodo’s recital
of the “Road Goes Ever On” is replied to by the Elves with the last stanza
of Gildor’s song mentioned above. implies that once he hears the
sound of the gulls. his longing for the sea will be awakened and he will
49
. Gildor says to Frodo that he and his companions are exiles and that they are
only lingering a short time before returning to the West beyond the sea.11
Nevertheless. in spite of this major difference.” Most
signiﬁcantly.
The Exile and Return of the Elves
The desire of the Elves to return to the West is mentioned explicitly
at several points in The Lord of the Rings.

as Galadriel herself makes very clear. The Children of Ilúvatar. both of whom attach a deep
signiﬁcance to the sea despite never having experienced it before. possess a more ambivalent attitude.13 Their yearning to
sail into the West is something that is familiar if not inevitable. Men. Legolas emphasizes
this point in his song to the sea which he sings on the Fields of Cormallen
where he refers to Eressëa as “elvenhome” and “land of my people. Sam.12 It is interesting in
this regard that Legolas has never experienced the sea before.
“hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea. Galadriel tells Legolas to beware of the cry of the gulls.”14 His
longing and.
Mortals
Whereas all Elves share the desire for the West. while Sam is moved
by the particular sound of the waves.15 The overwhelming effect the sea
has on Sam is particularly striking when compared to his strong.
Curiously. more than any other
element. Water is mentioned speciﬁcally as the
“most greatly praised” element created for it contains.”17 Sam’s experience of the sea at the Grey Havens is surely
50
. are often marked
out by their reaction to the sea. the restlessness he feels in Middle-earth. like Legolas. have never been to Eressëa before.
Those mortals who do possess such a desire. even if
they.16 There is also an interesting similarity between Sam and Legolas.Middle-earth Minstrel
no longer be able to live contentedly in Mirkwood. characteristically hobbit-like aversion to boats and water. the mortals of Middle-earth. yet he accepts
without question its powerful effect. an “echo” of the Music of the Ainur. dwarves and hobbits. they are aware. The “Ainulindalë” is an account of the creation of the world by
God (Ilúvatar) and his arch-angelic spirits (Ainur) who sing three mighty
themes of music as a creative act. is really
a desire to return to his true home. that
the world is changing and the age of Men is at hand. Why is the sound of the sea so signiﬁcant? One answer lies in a statement in the “Ainulindalë” of the Silmarillion. however.
The Elves as a whole are thus united in their innate and natural desire
to return West. conversely. arguably the most rustic and conservative of the hobbits. special emphasis is placed on sound rather than sight. is deeply moved when he ﬁrst hears the waves
breaking on the shores of Middle-earth. and yet know not for what
they listen.

he inherits the sea-longing from
his father who had mysteriously vanished while on a voyage. The shores
that Eriol refers to are.´ me strongode longas (Wilkin)
Æfre
related to this innate power of water.19 exhibits this point clearly.
He recalls how he broke free from his bonds when he heard the “calling”
of the “great seas’ ﬂood” and wandered about the isles and capes on the
Western shores.” the sounds of the sea are “perilous. is that Eriol is an exile with an inherent sealonging which ultimately leads him to Eressëa. Details about
Eriol’s life differ according to the stages of his conception: in one instance
he is led to the sea after his parents are killed in the Viking incursion into
Anglo-Saxon England. Eriol feels the strong call of the sea.20
Like the Elves.” This ambiguity is
realized in Sam’s case where it is clearly implied that the sea has a profound effect on him.” is very different in
tone from the homely Eressëa which Legolas refers to in his song. but it is notable
that the object of his desire. “the dark western shores. One of the most notable
of these is the “Song of Eriol” where Eriol describes his journey to Eressëa. yet it is unclear how it changes him or what his experience means. for one thing. referred to in the poem as “this isle
51
.” the capes are not lit by day
but are in “twilight. indeed. In “The Song of Eriol.
especially so if we consider the importance of light and dark imagery to
Tolkien’s works. Tolkien wrote a number of poems that he attributed to Eriol concerning his wanderings and his desire for the West. Once there he eventually
ﬁnds the Cottage of Lost Play. it is not at all clear whether it can ever be fulﬁlled. however. not only ambiguous but dangerous.18
Unlike the Elves. if indeed a mortal could set foot in the immortal realms
of Eressëa and Valinor. on the other. the passage expresses a paradox: on
the one hand the Children have an “unsated” desire for the sound of the
sea. While the yearning for the West is evident enough in some
mortals. It is highly signiﬁcant in this case that Tolkien’s
answer appeared to be in the negative. The waves are “unknown. which quietly echoes the Music of
the Ainur.” the mariner
does indeed ﬁnd the land of the Elves. One of Tolkien’s
earliest mariner characters. The precise effect the sound of the music has on the Children
of Ilúvatar is not explained.” One of the most
important questions Eriol’s poem prompts us to ask is whether this longing could be fulﬁlled. The most
important detail. they “know not for what they listen. the desire of mortals for the West is fraught with
uncertainty. Eriol. while in another. where he is told the history of the Elder
Days.

26
But. it is possible to characterize the
differences between the longing of Elves and mortals in more depth. however. Valinor and Eressëa have strong resonances with the
biblical Eden through the use of tree-symbolism.25 Whichever the
case.
In the Silmarillion there is a close equation between Valinor and Eressëa
with trees.23
Valinor and Eden
The longing of Elves and those certain mortals for Valinor takes on
a deeper meaning when considered in relation to the biblical fall of man. makes clear the symbolic signiﬁcance of the Two Trees. reveals
an important difference between these two places. the Two Trees nevertheless retained their signiﬁcance in the poetry of the Elves.
Despite their destruction by Melkor and Ungoliant. the poem
ends ambiguously with his continued wandering. as Galadriel sings in the
following lines: “Winter. She sings
of “leaves of gold” which may refer either to the “golden tree” that grows
in Eldamar or the mallorn trees that grow in Lothlórien. which she sings to the Fellowship as they are about
to leave.24
There are two major indications that the West can be associated with Eden
before the fall. in Eldamar there is no decay. whereas the West is only barely remembered by mortals and shrouded
in mystery and peril. Galadriel’s
ﬁrst song in Lothlórien. Yavanna planted the Two Trees.Middle-earth Minstrel
of magic. only
special individual mortals such as Sam and Frodo are conscious of such a
desire.” but he does not appear to ﬁnd any contentment there.
52
. in order to provide light for the world before the coming of the Elves. First. where the Elves are able to return
to the West along the Straight Road. Second. Most decisively. In Valinor. Laurelin and Telperion.” the “bare and leaﬂess Day” comes to Lórien.22
Whereas the Elves as a whole appear to possess a desire for the West. which in turn allows us to compare Lothlórien with Eldamar itself. there appear to
be strong connections between the fall of man and the exiles of the Noldor
from Valinor and the Númenóreans from Númenor.21
With these considerations in mind. the very ambiguity in the lines sets up a comparison between the mallorn trees and Laurelin. Such a comparison. the way is effectively blocked for
mortals. by implication. the golden tree. The Elves’ longing for Eressëa and Valinor is a familiar longing for
home.

when
Sam meets Galadriel in the havens. The same imagery is used to emphasize this point in Legolas’ song of
the sea. despite its
strong links with the timeless memory of the Elder days. as the Third
Age closes and the dominion of men grows.28
The “King. Rather.”31
The link between trees and the spiritual state of the land and people
it is associated with adds a new dimension to the comparison that is made
between falling leaves in Lothlórien and the trees in Valinor. At a further level.”
The “withered Tree” referred to in the song indicates the spiritual decay
of Gondor under the rule of the stewards. Afterwards. If Eldamar is a place
of changelessness then it is also a place of deathlessness. and indeed the song itself resembles a psalm in both its form and language. and the replanting of the tree by
Aragorn (who ﬁnds it miraculously growing on the side of the mountain)
symbolizes the spiritual renewal of the city under the true king.” referring on the surface level to Aragorn. and this quality
endows the lands of the West with a powerful signiﬁcance that recalls the
changelessness of the pre-fallen biblical Eden. Valinor as a heavenly paradise on Earth takes on the strong resemblance of a
53
. When Saruman attempts to take control of the Shire and corrupt it through industry. While
the shedding of leaves naturally heralds the passing of seasons. it seems
that something more is meant by “Winter” than just a season. his most decisive act is to chop down the Party
Tree. Even Lothlórien. the leaves do not fall in Eldamar. it poses as a sharp contrast to the
spiritual corruption of Middle-earth under Sauron. has an obvious resonance with Christ and the Resurrection. If Valinor is
characterized as a place of deathlessness.”27
Unlike Lothlórien. however. which
takes root and successfully grows into a healthy mallorn. where he describes Eressëa as a place “where the leaves fall not.29 It is especially notable how
closely the tree is connected with the fact that the city “shall be blessed.
The tree symbolism in the song of praise on the Fields of Cormallen
makes the connection between the West and Eden in a stronger manner.
“Winter” denotes the fading of the Elves in Middle-earth. for the Shire “shall now be more than ever blessed and beloved. It is signiﬁcant then that Eldamar
is characterized in contradistinction to Lothlórien as a place that is changeless. The tree. is nevertheless a
place of change and thus a place of decay. is replaced by Sam with a mallorn seed.30 The
connection between blessing and trees is offered again in a parallel to the
white tree.´ me strongode longas (Wilkin)
Æfre
The leaves of the trees in this respect serve to symbolize change. she remarks that he has used her gift
well.

33
The exile of the Noldor is thus made explicit. This allows us to characterize the longing of the Children
of Ilúvatar in a new light: the desire of both mortals and Elves for the
West may be considered as a longing to return to a paradise on Earth.
as we have established previously.Middle-earth Minstrel
biblical Eden. only the Noldor and
those Elves which took part in Fëanor’s rebellion are subject to the curse
of exile. Finally and most decisively. To begin with. a host of the Noldor under the leadership
of Fëanor slays a number of the Teleri. the Teleri and the Quendi who remained in the West
are exempt from the doom of the Valar and maintain their “unfallen” state. their kindred.
The Fall
The differences between the longing of mortals and Elves for the West
are reﬂected in the different natures of their falls. it is
not a fall which extends over the entire race of Elves. provokes the Valar to curse the Noldor and bar
them from Valinor. however. The fall of the Noldor
may be regarded as a “sub-creative fall. one of the most decisive differences
between Elves and mortals is that the latter do not belong in Valinor or
Eressëa. and the subsequent
history of the First Age is characterized by the fulﬁllment of the curse of
Mandos. Fëanor’s sin. who refused to relinquish their ships. Fëanor leads a great host of Elves out of Valinor against the will
of the Valar with the intent of taking up war against Morgoth in Middleearth.34 The fall of
the Noldor is thus a “sub-creative” one in their jealousy to preserve their
own works and arrest change. the Elves are
able to return to Valinor once Fëanor’s oath is brought to its ﬁnal conclusion. the fall
of the Elves is not a complete fall in the same sense. as Tolkien makes clear in his letter to Milton Waldman. Otherwise. Yet. as indeed Galadriel demonstrates in The Lord of the Rings. an act which resembles
the Cain and Abel story. is to succumb to the elvish temptation of “possessiveness” over the
Silmarilli which he created with the light of the Two Trees. Consequently.
54
. Despite the allusion to the Cain and Abel story. The blood-spilling of Elf by Elf.
Second. the elvish yearning to return to the Edenic West is
able to be fulﬁlled once they receive pardon. In their haste to set sail.”32 Angered by the theft of the Silmarilli.

”35 Undoubtedly. in contrast
to the fall of the Noldor.
The downfall of Númenor in the Second Age resembles the original
Fall of Man more fully than the previous passage. which applied only in part to the race of Elves. A clue is given in the reference to the Kinslaying of the Noldor. including the Elf-friends. Moreover.37 The account of the
slow spiritual corruption of Númenor describes the Númenóreans yearning more than ever for the “undying city that they saw from afar” and “everlasting life. surely there once existed an original
paradise. One of the most revealing passages in this regard
occurs in the description of Men’s arrival into the West in The Silmarillion:
Of his (Morgoth’s) dealings with Men the Eldar indeed knew nothing. equivalent to Eden.
The comparison to the biblical fall of man in this passage is not complete. “The ﬁrst fall of
Man.
While the nature of the “darkness” that resides in the “hearts” of men is
left unexplained. appears to be highly elusive. however.
however.” Their restlessness increases and they murmur against the
55
. Any reference to this fall in The Silmarillion. at that
time. If mortals’ desire for the sea is
emblematic of a return to paradise.´ me strongode longas (Wilkin)
Æfre
The contrasting inability of mortals to reach the West and their apparent exiled state thus implies a complete fall that extends beyond the “subcreative” fall of the Elves.
this darkness extends to all Men. for there is no mention. There is. as mentioned earlier.” yet proceeded to assert a paragraph later that in his mythology. however. even in an implied sense. of an
original Eden in the awakening of Men. nowhere appears. for reasons explained. resembles the Cain and Abel story. but that a darkness lay upon the hearts
of Men (as the shadow of the Kinslaying and the Doom of Mandos lay upon
the Noldor) they perceived clearly even in the people of the Elf-friends whom
they ﬁrst knew. and learnt but little afterwards. there is certainly an allusion to some kind of spiritual
corruption. Such an
allusion brings with it a marked biblical overtone. leaving the possibility of
its implicit occurrence.36
No fall is stated explicitly in this passage.
which. the apparent contradiction is solved if we take Tolkien’s statements to mean that the
fall does not appear explicitly in the mythology. another instance in The
Silmarillion which offers a more detailed parallel to the ﬁrst mysterious
“fall” mentioned above. but it is surely implied. In his letter to Milton Waldman
Tolkien stated that “there cannot be any ‘story’ without a fall.

Middle-earth Minstrel
restriction the Valar imposed on them that they should never set foot in
Eressëa or Valinor.38 At the height of their power, a “shadow” descends
upon the Númenóreans which is speciﬁcally attributed to the “will of
Morgoth.” Thus, in both the passage describing the corruption of the
Númenóreans and the passage hinting at the original fall of Men in the
East, the presence of Morgoth, the “shadow,” is referred to as the source
of Men’s corruption. From the Númenor passage, we can infer the nature
of Morgoth’s corrupting inﬂuence: instilling in Men the fear of death and
stirring up the corresponding hope that they can overcome death by their
own efforts. This hope and this fear constitute the ultimate hubris on the
part of men, since death is the ordained and natural fate of mankind.39
The Downfall of Númenor also offers an explanation for the loss of
an Edenic paradise after the fall of man. Númenor itself bears a striking
resemblance to Eden, particularly when it is placed in comparison with
Middle-earth itself. Geographically, this similarity is emphasized by its
close proximity to Eressëa which is stated to be within sight of the westernmost haven of Númenor.40 Before the arrival of Sauron, the land itself
is described as a place of longevity and the Númenóreans resemble the
Elves even more than they do the other Men of the East.41 After the destruction of Númenor, Valinor and Eressëa are removed from the Earth and
can no longer be reached except via the Straight Road which is physically
impassable for mortals. Consequently, the complete destruction of
Númenor by Ilúvatar himself represents on this level the loss of Eden as
a result of the fall of man and, unlike the fall of the Elves, Men are unable
to return in spite of their longing to do so. This idea of a deep longing
for the West that we have seen thus takes on a thoroughly biblical dimension.
How do poetry and music ﬁt in with this conception? The source of
poetic inspiration derives precisely from this intense longing for a deathless paradise and the frustration of its fulﬁllment as a result of the fall.
Poetry, in this sense, is a reaction to the problem of death, a way of articulating or giving vent to the restlessness it inspires in those mortals who
are marked out by their special friendship with the Elves.42 Thus it is no
accident that mortals such as Eriol, Bilbo and Frodo are the transmitters
of the tales which give us the legends of The Silmarillion, and the stories
of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.43 Tolkien’s point about poetic
inspiration reaches out beyond his secondary world; it stands as a possible

56

´ me strongode longas (Wilkin)
Æfre
explanation for the nature of poetry itself in our own, primary world.44 It
also allows us to see with greater clarity Tolkien’s rationale for his own
creativity.
It is clear, then, that despite the futility of attempting to restore the
paradise of Eden, mankind’s longing for the deathless lands in the West
is the crucial catalyst for the poetic process. Nevertheless, with the blessings that poetry brings, Tolkien adds a serious warning. As the story of
Númenor’s downfall illustrates, the longing for the West can easily be corrupted and perverted into an impious and hubristic obsession for acquiring eternal life and divine power through mankind’s own technological
efforts — the other, more perilous alternative to poetic sub-creation.

Notes
1. This Old English quotation is taken from one of Tolkien’s “asterisk poems”
printed in Tom Shippey’s The Road to Middle-earth (Boston and New York: Houghton
Mifﬂin, 2003), 356–357.
2. See also Tolkien’s statement about Elvish “magic” being Art, “delivered from
many of its human limitations.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, ed.
Humphrey Carpenter (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifﬂin, 2000), 146.
3. In The Hobbit, the party ﬁrst hears the light-hearted Elf-song as they enter
Rivendell. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (London: HarperCollins, 1993), 45–47.
4. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, ed. Christopher Tolkien (London: HarperCollins, 1999), 163.
5. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (London: HarperCollins, 1993), 114.
6. Ibid., 311.
7. Ibid., 484 and 490–1.
8. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, 7.
9. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, 115.
10. Ibid., 311 and 484.
11. After their awakening in Middle-earth, the Elves migrated West to Valinor
under the leadership of Oromë. A number of the Elves remained, for various reasons, in
Middle-earth and refused to make the journey West over the Sea. See the chapter “The
Coming of the Elves” in J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 43–53.
12. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers (London: HarperCollins, 1993), 130.
13. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, 488.
14. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King (London: HarperCollins, 1993), 283.
15. Ibid., 378.
16. It is noteworthy that the Fellowship does not trust Sam with an oar, when they
leave by boat out of Lothlórien. See also the Gaffer’s discussion about Frodo’s parents in
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, 41.
17. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 8.
18. There are at least two more direct connections between water and music in The
Fellowship of the Ring. In Rivendell Frodo drifts off into a “dream of music” which ends

57

Middle-earth Minstrel
in “running water” Again, when crossing the Nimrodel Frodo thinks he can hear the
sound of singing “mingled” in the stream. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring,
306 and 440 respectively.
19. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Book of Lost Tales I, ed. Christopher Tolkien (London:
HarperCollins, 1994), 14.
20. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Book of Lost Tales 2, ed. Christopher Tolkien (London:
HarperCollins, 1995), 299.
21. Related to this idea is the much later poem “The Last Ship” where Fíriel, a
mortal woman, cannot sail off with the Elves. See J.R.R. Tolkien, The Adventures of Tom
Bombadil (London: Unwin, 1975), 141 –144.
22. See also Verlyn Flieger’s discussion on the discrepancy between the Elvish and
mortal point of view on death. Verlyn Flieger, Interrupted Music: The Making of Tolkien’s
Mytholog y (Kent and London: Kent State University Press, 2005), 45–54.
23. With the exception of those of the fellowship who sail with Gandalf to the
West.
24. For a discussion on the fall of man in Tolkien’s mythology see, Jonathan Evans,
“The Anthropology of Arda” in Tolkien the Medievalist, ed. Jane Chance (London and New
York: Routledge, 2000), 194–224.
25. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, 484.
26. Ibid., 488.
27. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, 283.
28. Ibid., 292.
29. Shippey notes in The Road to Middle-earth that the song strongly echoes Psalms
24 and 33. See Tom Shippey, The Road to Middle-earth (Boston and New York: Houghton
Mifﬂin, 2003), 200.
30. It is of further note that Aragorn’s name may be translated as “tree-king” in
Sindarin.
31. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, 375. Cf. Tolkien, J.R.R., The Silmarillion, 314. Further instances of this pattern are found in The Silmarillion. In Númenor,
the white tree Nimloth is cut down by Sauron once he succeeds in corrupting the Númenóreans for the desire of eternal life. A sapling is planted by Elendil when the new kingdoms are founded in Middle-earth. These examples serve as a reminder of the ﬁrst tree
slaying, when Morgoth destroys the two Trees of Valinor.
32. Tolkien states this explicitly in his letter to Milton Waldman. See J.R.R. Tolkien,
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 145.
33. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 94.
34. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 148. A parallel instance of this
point is seen with the creation of the three elven rings (resembling the three Silmarills)
which were intended to arrest change and preserve the work of the Elves.
35. Ibid., 147–8. Tolkien’s reason for not including an explicit reference to the fall
of man is that it would compromise the integrity of his secondary world.
36. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 164.
37. In one letter, Tolkien referred to the Númenor story as the “second fall of man.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 154.
38. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 315.
39. There is of course a fundamental difference between Tolkien’s conception of the
fall of man in The Silmarillion and the account in Genesis. Whereas death is a punishment for transgression in Genesis, it is said to be the most important gift of Ilúvatar to

58

´ me strongode longas (Wilkin)
Æfre
Men in The Silmarillion. Morgoth’s corruption of Men, precipitating their fall, seems to
consist of instilling in them a fear of death. Tolkien did not regard this interpretation of
Genesis to be incompatible with Christian doctrine. See J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of
J.R.R. Tolkien, 285–6.
40. J.R.R. Tolkien, 313.
41. Ibid., 311.
42. The strong connection between the fall and poetic inspiration is also reﬂected
in the Elves’ case. In the account of the exile of the Noldor in chapter 9 of The Silmarillion, Fëanor replies to Mandos’ dreadful curse, saying that the deeds of the exiles ‘shall
be the matter of song until the last days of Arda.’ See J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion,
95. It is of further note that a comparison seems to be implied between Fëanor’s stubborn refusal to heed the Valar and Ar-Pharazôn’s blasphemous invasion of Valinor. In both
cases, each “hardened his heart.” See J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 95 and 333.
43. In the terms of Tolkien’s secondary world, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
are actually stories taken from “The Red Book of Westmarch” composed by various authors, but chieﬂy Bilbo, Frodo and Sam. See the “Note on Shire Records” in J.R.R.
Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, 34–36. The Silmarillion is a more complex case because it was never properly completed. It is clear, at least on the basis of Tolkien’s earlier
versions of the legendarium that he intended to give it a frame and a textual history like
he did with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Eriol in “The Cottage of Lost Play”
stories, Auboin and Audoin in “The Lost Road” and Alwin Arundel Lowdham and Wilfred Trewin Jeremy in “The Notion Club Papers” were, at various stages, intended to be
the transmitters of the tales of the ﬁrst age. All of these characters were troubled by sealonging. See J.R.R. Tolkien, The Book of Lost Tales I, 13–44, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lost Road
and Other Writings, ed. Christopher Tolkien (London: HarperCollins, 1993), 36–104
and J.R.R. Tolkien, Sauron Defeated, ed. Christopher Tolkien (London: HarperCollins,
2002), 145–327 respectively.
44. Tolkien’s statement that “all stories are ultimately about the fall” in his letter to
Sir Stanley Unwin may be understood precisely in regards to this point. Tolkien also
hinted at his rationale in his letter to Michael Straight where he says that his Elves and
Men are really just different aspects of the “Humane” and represent “the problem of
Death.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 147 and 236 respectively.

Such an imaginative mode.1 Tolkien’s critics were quick to point out his unconventional literary approach with exasperation. surely tested his patience and that of his publishers. Tolkien’s book The Lord of the
Rings. and no one else does either!” came one of the many
review statements in reaction to J. poets and artists from
61
. It was not his indomitable (though mostly well-mannered)
temperament that was foreign to the literary critics.J.R. This long
lineage of illustrious individuals who preceded him. soon we shall be a song.R. but Tolkien’s willingness to allow the material to arise from levels not accessible by the analytical mind.R. Those critics might have found
it puzzling that Tolkien’s writings continue to touch the deepest reaches
of the collective psyche over a half of a century later.— Hölderlin
“I don’t like it.R. But there are other
writers who have walked this way before Tolkien. a mode which bafﬂed them. who in the end
had to wait twelve years for the book that would follow the very successful Hobbit. Tolkien
managed to remain true to his own literary nature and to his desire to craft
enchantment. which is the subject of this chapter.
There is indeed a well-established though hidden tradition of visionary temperament and thought — a “fellowship” of another kind — with
which Tolkien earns his association through his literary approach. Tolkien:
A Fortunate Rhythm
Darielle Richards
Now we are a conversation. “Why couldn’t he just follow the normal
story structure and end it in the usual way?” Amidst the outcry from his
numerous detractors and pressures to ﬁnish The Lord of the Rings.

” is the perennial wisdom. A closer look at the writing and purposes of Tolkien and the Inklings would have revealed a connection with antiquity among the group
of friends who inspired and supported one another through their love of
ideas and of the imagination.
veriﬁed and re-experienced again and again. Gareth Knight. biographer of the
Inklings — Tolkien’s literary brotherhood at Oxford — described their work
of creating magical worlds: “By a ‘magical work. writer. and speak through diverse schools of thought in almost every age. an ageless philosophy that can be known “in the nature of things. along with
the knowledge of the intellect. one that enables us to see past the merely personal. works expressing a
sense of unity with all life. and healer of this tradition seeks a poesis or a creative process which stems from a participatory and transformative threshold innate to the heart.
62
. expressed through “the human breast. and are called to birth something new
Each scholar. artist.”2
It was only after years of struggling against the tide of a reductionist. not the reasoning mind.
Cartesian hegemony.
metaphors. seeks the truth of the imagination. G. as well as invisible but felt dimensions. The tide she fought against in the sixties and seventies was (and is)
the same tide that Tolkien faced as he began his writings of fairy-story in
the early twentieth century.
One knows them by their creative works — works ﬁlled with symbols. This perception includes the greater story of the living epiphanic
creation and our relationship with it.3 She found that
this learning. opening to a
more conscious and compassionate relationship with the world outside
ourselves. Something in their expression changes us. discovered the discredited and neglected writings that
constitute what she called the learning of the imagination.
These innovative individuals share a constellation of values and principles.’ we mean a way of evoking the creative imagination of the reader to participate through story and
landscape and characters in a deeper level of truth or reality. poet and scholar of the works
of Blake and Yeats.
Without doubt the literati and other critics of Tolkien’s time would
have been less perplexed by his books had they understood his literary tradition.”4 She recognized that this
philosophy was reﬂected in the works of the Romantic poets and C.Middle-earth Minstrel
antiquity to the modern era. We
are initiated.
Jung. that Kathleen Raine. Why does
anyone seek this creative threshold but that it provides a ﬁner lens of perception.

Italy. it
can be found embodied in other small world-changing groups such as that
of Pythagoras’ community in ﬁfth-century B.
As Tolkien’s letters reveal. Persia. a body of work which opens to other worlds. beauty. they
each carried the power of a maker in his (or her) soul.C.
For Tolkien and his literary friends. Each such
gathering of artist/thinker/healers demonstrated an overcoming of cultural
bias against their deep vision and participation in an on-going Creation. this time in high fantasy. Dante’s Fedele D’amor
fellowship in thirteenth-century Italy.7 not only as a refreshment to the soul. Plotinus’
Neoplatonic school in third-century Rome.C. but as a natural literary mode
and inherited right for each of us as the creative offspring of a Maker. worlds
created in part by the level or intensity of consciousness.
but friendship with something remarkable about it. And yet we can trace this new genre and ﬁnd its beginnings deep in
antiquity. The entire company
of Inklings shared in Tolkien’s belief that as offsprings of a Maker. Rumi’s Mevlevi (the Whirling
Dervishes) community of thirteenth-century Persia. Tolkien (Richards)
Interestingly.R.J. “it places humanity as the crucial partner. This work is said
to have begun the Romantic movement with its own new vistas of inspiration. the
gathering place and birthplace of the Florentine Renaissance.”6 This core belief in the
divinity of humanity and of the imagination echoes through all time. whose educational and religious
backgrounds varied greatly. fellow-worker and even friend of divinity. Neoplatonist and Hermetic scholar. companion. oracular knowing. creativity. Thus one can observe how this imaginative legacy continues
to inspire those who follow. “We make still in
the law in which we’re made. another literary friendship in the late eighteenth century between Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth produced
the Lyrical Ballads.R. its belief in the spiritual truth of feelings and nature. All
63
. writes of
some of the earliest thought of this tradition and its perennial wisdom
from 600 B.
Christopher Bamford. a shared purpose was to celebrate friendship. and in the Medici Platonic Academy at Careggi headed by Marsilio Ficino in the ﬁfteenth century. Crotona. and compassion — a poetic movement which in
turn clearly contributed to the founding of the Inklings over a hundred
years later.”5 It is this sense of creative divinity alive in
each person that seeded another literary renaissance. it appears that he intended to open a way
for others to follow after him in the perceiving of and “subcreation” of
worlds.

J. was the ten-yearold boy whose enthusiastic response to reading a draft of The Hobbit
inspired his father to publish it. “his poor
articulation was really due to having too much to say rather than to experiencing any physical difﬁculty in saying it. Tolkien wrote a great deal about his literary process
through his lectures and letters. “He tried not to make me feel embarrassed.R. and explained that not only
was his mind occupied with many aspects of his fantasy.10
Fortunately.R. This mercurial quality contributed to his sometimes talking too fast to be understood.
but he also notes. the mind
would wing to the other pole and spend itself on the linguistics). Tolkien. because he was after all a ferocious intellect. a thing basic to his survival.— Joseph Campbell
Rayner Unwin. and admitted that the “stories tend
to get out of hand. and even though he had already established himself as a scholar and
highly respected literary theorist — still being the recognized authority on
Beowulf today—Tolkien sought not the life of the intellect alone but aspired
to create the kind of enchantment expressed in “elvish craft. though continually interrupted
labour (especially since.”11 In his letter to Stanley Unwin in December of
1937. he asked for more patience on their part. He
did not seek more sustenance for his powers of reason.Middle-earth Minstrel
this was to be accomplished while valuing the freedom and well-being of
others.
A Film Portrait. but I was
often embarrassed.”13 Sur-
64
. which were already
robust. His was a quick-silver mind capable of
multiple paths at once. Rayner describes Tolkien as an unbelievably loyal friend. nourishment
to fuel his ability to bring the wonder of Other Worlds onto the page. son of publisher Stanley Unwin. and while holding sacred this world and its biosphere.”8
In the face of this memorable insight into the power of Tolkien’s intellect. He could and did recite poetry
with the greatest clarity. even apart from the necessities of life.”9 This would
be the kind of “food” he needed. In the 1992 documentary.”12 He was well aware of his own creative tension in the
creation of his fairy-stories: “An absorbing.. you
experience a radiance. Carpenter explains... but he was also
intensely emotionally engaged as well.
An Elvish Love of Enchantment
When a fortunate rhythm has been struck by the artist.

one that allows for the mind
to engage its intellect through a philological precision without neglecting
the deep desires of the heart with its imaginative encounters. for the
writing to have value.” yet he writes. what emerges from his letters on what might be called a dual focus
is the image of a balanced if intense process. for amidst
his great activity.
We ﬁnd Tolkien following clearly in the footsteps of Wordsworth.
To be sure. a method of perception through deep contemplation and
inner sight that looks to the guiding truths of “not this” and “not that. Tolkien (Richards)
prisingly. was born of his
philological experiences and temperament.
whereby an author can be both a seed and a gardener. In his letters.
65
. Tolkien translated this understanding into a paradoxical metaphor. with its
willingness to allow the truth to reveal itself over time. holding to the knowledge that he was not consciously in control of what was unfolding in the
mythology. not unlike Tolkien himself. for the transformation. He would
develop a mode of allowing for both modes of cognition. it appears he held in reserve the place of the “cupped
hand. ennobling it and gladdening it.15 In the seed state. Through his linguistic research.18 Here we ﬁnd a camaraderie of thought with Tolkien. “all good poetry
is the spontaneous overﬂow of powerful feelings.”14 Writing in the familiar terms of the
garden.J. such a receptive mode of creation was known as
the via negativa. he assures us that making only comes through
grace after all.R. he
respectfully practiced the gentle art of letting go. who often wrote of the glimpses or hints
of those other dimensions that allow us to see a glimmer coming through
into this world. part of Tolkien’s natural talent for receptivity. They seemed to be ﬁlled with light as a cup
is with water.
who wrote of poetry in his preface to the Lyrical Ballads. these emotions must be recollected in tranquility
through “thought long and deep.”
This place reserved is a “negative” capability of which the Romantic poet
Keats speaks wherein one seeks “verisimilitudes” or likenesses (images) of
the truth as the raw material of poetry or the arts.”17 This image is quite apropos to Tolkien’s process.
one waits silently in the dark soil for the new thing. they saw rays of sunlight falling upon his hands “which
lay now upturned on his lap. In spite of the ﬁery intellect which drove part of his process.R. Gandalf had been
contemplating what the Ents might do to Isengard: As the others
watched Gandalf.16
In The Two Towers.”
In the Middle Ages.

Of this encounter Tolkien wrote.”22 Jung refers here to the work of the psyche that goes on without interference by the conscious mind.”20 His dedication to this
phrase of deep antiquity — and his desire to create the world in which it
could be spoken — never waned. He explains in The Hobbit.Middle-earth Minstrel
Tolkien developed a passion for looking beyond the ancient words.24
Tolkien found his stories developing quite without his participation.” (Hail Earendel. Tolkien lets Elrond express the understanding
that one does not try to look directly at the hidden images with the eye
of the intellect. “They can only
be seen when the moon shines behind them.
if I could grasp it. he writes that when Tolkien ﬁrst found the
Anglo Saxon poem of Cynewulf. of imagined wonder” that fulﬁlls the
primal desire of Faërie. Tolkien
knew the inner vision reveals itself only through its own “magic” and cannot be forced. in 1939. but that
one cannot see them directly. which contained an Old English line
“Éala Éarendel engla beorhtast. he
was exceptionally moved.
referred to the unconscious work prerequisite to fairy-stories in his lecture for St.”21 In spite of the fact that his
publishers George Allen and Unwin were pressing for the book.”19 Humphrey
Carpenter reports one of the most dramatic examples of Tolkien’s seeking into the unknown past. Tolkien knew this premise to be true and. brightest of angels). Elrond knew that Moon-letters are actually runes.25 He wrote in his letters that he planned
very little. The charmed greeting ﬁnally came
home to Middle-earth in The Fellowship of the Ring over twenty-ﬁve years
later. Reﬂections of this activity come to the conscious mind in
visions and dreams. far beyond ancient English.26 It was the very process of something going on in the “uncon-
66
. Andrews “Of Fairy-Stories.
Jung once wrote that “The autonomous activity of the psyche is the
source of myths and fairy tales.
with much of the work taking place “when one is saying how-do-you-do.23 The wonder comes through a “direct appreciation” by the mind without the “chain of argument” typically experienced
through reasoning.” explaining that it is “realization
independent of the conceiving mind.”
or even while one is sleeping. and
he admits to having a fascination for the “vanished past.
Devoted to metaphor. “There was
something very remote and strange and beautiful behind those words. work that
allows the greater universal and mythic patterns and archetypal images of
life to arise.

”33 The whole of The Silmarillion would be moved by the events that took place in the Lord of the Rings. is
an excellent example of this tradition of the imagination in another arena. though his mode was
clearly one of inquiry not strategic planning. but as Christopher Tolkien
writes. “He just
made it up!” and he wanders lost like his characters. and admitted to being only
75 percent satisﬁed by the results. To those who have read his books.J. it is just unforgettable. The questions he had about the tales remained unanswered.”29
Putting in his time. “any attempt
to trace in ‘linear’ fashion the history of the writing of LOR cannot at the
same time take full account of the great constructions that were rising
behind the onward movement of the tale.”30 By the end of 1939.34
It is humorous to note that Tolkien’s creative approach mystiﬁes those
who are not familiar with (or in philosophical agreement with) its guiding principles. that as Christopher Tolkien writes. an entire lineage in fact. “His vision is not perfect. Jung pioneered in psychology seeking answers in the images he
found in dreams and visions.R. a year or more would pass before he
could go forward with the writing. Verlyn Flieger’s insight on his
art is surely appropriate. It was in
his times of greatest pressure to ﬁnish and not being able to go on that he
realized he had to wait until “What really happened” came through.
While Tolkien sought myth and fairy-story to ﬁnd answers to his deepest
questions. Jung. he wrote story outlines. and said
so.32 The project had grown so vast. whose work took place contemporaneously with Tolkien’s. They are in fact driven to make comments like. Tolkien (Richards)
scious.27 He
found a large margin of error in the process. He hit moments of despair. Tolkien had fully written and polished the story all the way to Rivendell.28 But then Art does not seek perfection.” that made him believe he was not inventing the mythology at all. that practices Tolkien’s way of literary creation. His autobiography Memories. the only stable thing
about his creative process being “that it is unstable.
All this while Tolkien had the sense of the tale “pressing towards unforeseen goals” when all he wanted to do was ﬁnish the book for the waiting
publisher.R.”35 We simply need to
review the great literature to ﬁnd Tolkien has had a wealth of good company.
67
. “The story unfolded itself
as it were.
but that he was only reporting on what had truly taken place. “yet at this time my father was without any clear conception of
what lay before him”31 At times. Dreams.

Ira Progoff.39
In his lecture. It is because a
child is constrained as an infant that the desire for (and capacity for) standing awakens. Consequently. mythologist and storyteller. describes this same function as a principle of life
that we have all experienced — that whenever an activity is restrained.
68
. allowing for the emotions
and intuitive.”36
In “Horses With Wings. protégé of Jung.” in this case fully occupied. and freely given. one can progress from speaking to thinking
to imagination to inspiration to conscious on-going intuition.” Denise Levertov describes the gift of
imagination by comparing the poet to the ﬂying horse — both being animal. a form of grace. Honoring both reason and the dreaming
psyche. his
“hand” behind is engaged in multiple other constructive but more analytic endeavors. none of which were
conjured by conscious willing. however. Joseph
Campbell. she tells us the poet must treasure the gift of intuition which transcends the limitations of deductive reasoning. writing that the imagination is released when
the busy brain is lulled to sleep.”
he was willing to endure the disciplines required to harmonize all the creative forces within himself. he wrote (it seems somewhat tongue-in-cheek) in his Commentary
to Richard Wilhelm’s translation of the Secret of the Golden Flower that
“consciousness is forever interfering.” Robert Sardello. but above all.”38 Tolkien’s mind had been fruitfully employed with the grading
process. freeing his imagination to make use of the unanticipated blank
page.” In this case. “The Heart of Archetypal Psychology. conﬁrms these ﬁndings in The
Flight of the Wild Gander. “The
imagination is the horses’ wings. unmerited. “On a blank leaf I scrawled ‘In
a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.’ I did not and do not know
why. the
very act of that harnessing will awaken a higher activity.”40 In a sense then. unattainable. “The phenomena of dreams commonly
impresses us more strongly than those of waking life just because in sleep
the brain is off guard. amazing.
archetypal psychologist. keeping a special hand on the intellectual
reigns.
A fortunate balance of intellect and imagination was struck on that
fateful day he was grading student exams. imaginative side to intensify. discussed situations where the mental
activity is “lowered. Tolkien’s creative process involves
the proverbial “one hand tied behind the back.Middle-earth Minstrel
Reﬂections is ﬁlled with numinous events from his life.”37 Because Tolkien treasured “the wings.

sometimes “niggling” over words and writing pages over as
many as eighteen times.R. Christopher
Tolkien explains that these little notes would continue to be characteristic
of his process. they are experienced.
What came forth from the story maker’s “compost pile” of personal memories — keep in mind especially “volunteer plants”— Tolkien found to be
the most vital.”44 Tolkien writes that the great Pot has been stewing for millennia and that it is the repository of the raw materials that provides access
to a hardy soup for all.”42 Notice of course that these “embodiments” will not
carry a message or be planned out in the conventional sense of the word.R.— William Blake
Conﬁrming what scholar-psychologist Roberts Avens has written. often writing upon scraps of paper. In seeking the mythic level. each
next step building on the one proceeding it toward more accuracy.47
His writing ﬁrst came in broad strokes. and Music. Similarly. Finally
for Tolkien. which often began in a rapid jotting down of ideas for the
tales.” beneath the conscious level. which Tolkien says was fully
present in his mind when he woke one morning and needed only to be
written down. he drew from the brew of
the collective imagination. he transformed these personal events into “unfamiliar embodiments.45 he put a lot of plain hard work into the writing of his
mythology. the chapter would seem to “write
itself.46 Tolkien began the work in earnest in the early
years of World War I. Tolkien (Richards)
An Orchestration of Powers
Poetry. the three powers in man of
conversing with Paradise.
With the exception of Leaf By Niggle. or what he called the “Cauldron of Story”43
where “so many potent things lie simmering age long on the ﬁre. Such iteration is a problem-solving method. fresh and sturdy of new plants (his stories). and then with each next revision. dainty and
undainty.J. after enough re-visiting. more clarity came..”48
One of Tolkien’s writing practices took him back repeatedly to ear-
69
.” Like
a pot of soup containing the history of stories and fairy-tales always boiling.”41 Tolkien drew on his own
life experiences and observations as the “leaf mould” of the mind. where tasty morsels “have continually been added...
“Myths are not invented. yet he told us
their source is primarily the prima materia of memories that have gone
“under. Painting.

in fact say nothing more about it than this: I do not know
70
. Though the artists
are centuries apart. the
synchronizing of the times. he “tended to compose in this way.”49 To literary theorist William Franke. is my method in writing and elaborating my large and lumbering things? I can.”56 There was a gathering of the threads. the parallels are stirring.
Then there was the mechanics of map making. It was Amadeus Mozart.
Tolkien’s creative process brings to mind the way in which another
of his lineage listened inwardly and then brought the pieces together —
writing the whole staff (for each instrument) all at once. and the manycolumned calendar with dates that tracked where all the characters or groups
were at any one time.”55 This extensive graphing included many
elements — dates and time. All of this activity was coordinated to be consistent
within the whole. you ask. there came the bringing
together and orchestrating of the whole mythology. chronology. a new quality came
into his process. phases of the moon. On the nature of Tolkien’s later writing. driving several subjects abreast
by means of interlaced notes. while Tolkien practiced the time-honored art of weaving into a narrative form the images and stories that arose in his mind.Middle-earth Minstrel
lier parts of his mythology.54 “Geography. so far as it is achieved. and sometimes even the
direction of the wind.
Finally.52 Just as Jung allowed dream and vision images to unfold
from within in a process he called “Active Imagination. who
describes his intuitive and humble habits of work:
What. and the interweaving of the narrative that had
been so long on Tolkien’s mind — until at last.51
Twentieth-century French philosopher and mathematician Gaston
Bachelard suggests that this kind of back and forth writing allows the
words to dream. working on multiple subjects and themes and
interlacing it all anew. once all the elements of the stories for The Lord of the Rings
had been found satisfactory and in their truest form. Christopher
explains.”50
Indeed. He writes in Dante’s Interpretive Journey that the creative doubling
back is a return upon the “literal” with a “willingness to be guided.
by constant re-writing backwards. Christopher Tolkien has often admitted to wrestling with seemingly endless “ﬁnal” versions of the same pages from his father’s writing. “The tying-up was achieved.”53 so Tolkien
allowed the words and the images to open like seeds each time he revisited them. and nomenclature all
had to be entirely consistent.
this reﬂexive doubling back is the “circling back” of the hermeneutic
process.

they realized they were singing “as if it
was easier and more natural than talking.J. This is the gift Tolkien sought to give. Gareth Knight. 110. tall and grim with bright
swords.R.
1967). “Mythopoeia.. or on a walk after a good meal — or during a
sleepless night. grow.J.R.S. “The Dream of Gemistos Plethon” (Sphinx 6 1994). When I am in particularly good condition —
perhaps riding in a carriage.
the hobbits are given food in abundance and many merry songs from their
hosts. His master strokes
often arose written in “Moon Letters” to be transcribed. Ibid.
The ﬁgures that exemplify for Tolkien that special kind of creation
are the elf bards. personal and collective. (farther on he describes how the “crumbs” spontaneously join
one another into a whole. Tolkien.”
6.
Notes
1.”60 These images caught
the hobbits up in a kind of reverie or dream. and sought to create. so others
have told me . The kind of stories he sought. N. and best of all. 107.R. Tolkien (Richards)
myself and can never ﬁnd out. touching those Other Worlds
within each of them. The Magical World of the Inklings (Dorset: Element. Defending Ancient Springs (London: Oxford University Press. then the thought comes to me in a rush. Tolkien. and this is
the legacy he leaves for the next generation of scribes and dreamers. Whence
and how — that I do not know and cannot learn. 58.
71
. Tom Shippey interview. Dir. 54.58 While dining at Tom Bombadil’s house. 1992). and hum them perhaps also to myself— at least.
4.R. “like a vast shadowy
plain over which there strode shapes of Men. who in The Lord of the Rings can make appear before the
listener’s eyes the visions of which they sing. A Film Portrait of J.”59 Though they could not understand Bombadil’s ancient words —ﬁlled with “wonder and delight”— the
hobbits experienced an unfolding vision as he spoke.
5. 1990).
2.
3.
All the ﬁnding and the making only goes on in me as in a very vivid dream. Tree and Leaf (Boston: Houghton Mifﬂin 1965). and ﬁnally assume a ﬁnished form in his head). and last came one with a star on his brow. Lewis. Helen Dickenson
(Princeton. 4..”57
The kind of creation Tolkien sought came just so — from a dreaming
psyche just below the surface. J. Those which please me I
retain in my head.R. As the evening progresses.. We can see this artistry too
in the timeless Tom Bombadil.R. Kathleen Raine.. From
Tolkien’s poem for his close friend and fellow Inkling C. Christopher Bamford. were composed of living images that
move the reader with a kind of music arising in the heart.

After reading Tolkien’s
ﬁction. this imagination that peopled
Middle-earth with elves. and the air
that blows in that country. and hobbits?” (293). xiv). a
view too long dulled by familiarity” (25). Jane Chance looks to Tolkien’s scholarship: “If Tolkien wished
to develop a ‘mythology for England’ akin to the Northern mythologies
75
. Although he portrays himself in that essay as “a
wandering explorer (or trespasser) in the land. orcs. Recovery. Consolation” (59). Some of Tolkien’s most
astute and dedicated critics have attempted to supply some answers. asks: “Where did it come from.
Tolkien could be said to provide readers with all four of the beneﬁts he says
derive from the reading of successful fairy-stories: “Fantasy.R.” So states J. Indeed. then. xiii) and explains Tolkien believed
“philology could take you back even beyond the ancient texts it studied”
(Author. Tolkien obviously succeeded brilliantly in creating fantasy
ﬁction set in what he deemed the perilous realm.Tolkien’s Unﬁnished “Lay of Lúthien”
and the Middle English Sir Orfeo
Deanna Delmar Evans
“The deﬁnition of a fairy-story — what it is. As Humphrey Carpenter. Looking to Tolkien’s profession. readers tend to feel refreshed. or what it should be —
does not.R. full of wonder but not information” (27). and Verlyn Flieger explains why:
“Experiencing the fantastic. Tolkien in his famous essay. depend on any deﬁnition or historical account of elf or
fairy. Tom Shippey believes “Tolkien’s ﬁction is certainly rooted in philology” (Author. but upon the nature of Faerie: the Perilous Realm itself.
It is hardly surprising that some satisﬁed readers have wondered about
where the author found inspiration for his elaborate secondary world of
Middle-earth. in the best of his ﬁction. author of Tolkien’s “authorized”
biography.
“On Fairy-Stories” (32).
Escape. we recover a fresh view of the unfantastic.

He further notes that “the land of the fairies in Sir Orfeo is neither an afterworld
nor an underworld [but] .. The elﬁn realm within Tolkien’s Middle-earth may be similarly described.
“medievalized Orpheus . John Block Friedman. and his customary pursuits” (160). makes a speciﬁc claim: “Tolkien drew his immediate inspiration
for the Wood-elves of The Hobbit from . and shortly after its completion.. In a later study. for he claims he has found a
probable source of inspiration for Tolkien’s elﬁn realm in one such Middle English work.. Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose (Chance
3). especially the world of the Woodelves whose dwelling place like that of Orfeo’s fairy king co-exists in an
ancient forest. his dwelling place. Characteristics of that medieval lay Shippey believes to have impacted Tolkien’s
imagination are that “the land of the dead has become elf-land” and that
the character of Sir Orfeo “is successful in his quest and bears his wife
away. Prior to publishing the edition. overcoming the elf-king by the mingled powers of music and honour” (63). In a way..
in fact. Humphrey indicates the translation was prepared for a wartime
cadets’ course at Oxford (158). what better way than to use those Old and Middle English works native
to his country in fashioning his own work?” (3). actually a counter world that exists side by
side with the world of man” (190). a single passage from the Middle English romance Sir Orfeo” (Author 34). in Orpheus
in the Middle Ages.
In The Road to Middle-earth. He also made a Modern English
poetic translation of Sir Orfeo.. not only in his ideals and behavior.Middle-earth Minstrel
. Shippey more assertively repeats that idea and. He worked on an edition published in 1921 as part
of Kenneth Sisam’s anthology. their fusion or kindling-point would seem to be some twenty or
thirty lines from the centre of the medieval poem of Sir Orfeo” (63). explains that the medieval writer or writers of Sir Orfeo. for he based his
edition on three different manuscript sources and shaped them. but also in
his dress. Tolkien could be credited with having “created” the Middle
English lay of Sir Orfeo as it is known to modern readers. but apparently completed it many years
later.. Interestingly Shippey
inadvertently validates Chance’s hypothesis. Tolkien
began composing fantasy narratives..
There is no question that Tolkien was well acquainted with the Middle English Sir Orfeo. Shippey offers the opinion that “for the
elves.. Criticism of Sir Orfeo supports and complements Shippey’s claim.
76
. with all
their variations. into a coherent whole.

The Lays of Beleriand
(1985). Tolkien’s primary
manuscript source for his edition (Sisam 13). after
completing The Lord of the Rings (Lays viii). has edited the extant fragments
as the Gest of Beren and Lúthien in the volume. there the tale is both alluded
to and also woven into Elrond’s family history. he indicates that on an envelope containing
a twenty-eight-page manuscript entitled a “Sketch of the Mythology with
especial reference to ‘The Children of Húrin. The hero succeeds in the task. and labels
77
. a mortal man) falls in love with a heroine of superior “status” (Lúthien. his youngest son. Her father (Thingol.. to explain background of Túrin [later Húrin]
and the Dragon .Tolkien’s Unﬁnished “Lay of Lúthien” and Sir Orfeo (Evans)
Tolkien began composing a verse romance of his own set in a fairy-tale
world. an immortal Elf ). In introducing the early alliterative
Lay of the Children of Húrin. and sets the hero a seemingly impossible task
as the price of her hand (to bring a Silmaril from the iron crown of Morgoth. he wrote the following title: “The/
Gest/ of Beren son of Barahir/ and/ Lúthien the Fay/ called/ Tinúviel the
Nightingale/ or the Lay of Leithian/ Release from Bondage” (Lays 188). He indicates
that the “rough workings” for the entire poem are extant (183). the Gest essentially is based on
the same story line Tolkien used in the prose “Tale of Tinúviel” included
in the Lost Tales II and the prose tale of Beren and Lúthien constituting
Chapter 19 of The Silmarillion. The Gest remains fragmented
and incomplete. 1918” (Lays 1).” Children 9). but
on the cover of a set of revised drafts.
The Gest is written in octosyllabic couplets. but dies as a result [98].
alias Melkor).
Brian Rosebury provides a basic plot summary of the fragmented poem:
The hero (Beren.
Christopher Tolkien provides valuable information for dating the
fragments of his father’s poetic Gest.’” his father had written:
“Original ‘Silmarillion’ . but Tolkien returned to the story again around 1950.
As revealed in Rosebury’s summary. the verse form of the
Middle English Sir Orfeo in the Auchinleck manuscript. He theorizes that his father had
completed the earliest drafts of Húrin before taking his ﬁrst teaching post
at Oxford in 1925. Initially Tolkien called his romance Tinúviel..
Christopher Tolkien.. King of the Elvish realm
of Doriath) opposes their union. elsewhere he indicates his father composed the basic tale in 1917
(“Preface. begun c. but discontinued that work in order to give more attention to the new verse romance he was calling Tinúviel (2)..

Lewis. indicates a most positive response: “I can honestly say that it is ages since I have had an evening of such delight.. Tolkien.
Before the end of 1929.. A brief comparison of the Gest of Beren fragments against the lay of
Sir Orfeo indicates that Tolkien apparently adapted some elements of the
Middle English lay for his own narrative. and the
last. the classical myth has been transformed into English legend: Orfeo “was a king of old. Tolkien had given a copy of what he had written up to that point to his friend C.. The earliest fragment is dated August 23. 1931 (183). / in
the woven woods of Doriath” (Lays 190. and a letter from Lewis. S.. Tolkien
calls attention to that transformation: “An amusing instance is the attempt
in the Auchinleck ms. trans. not to their actual
composition” (183). lines 41 –43).
Tolkien’s Gest of Beren is like Sir Orfeo in that it centers on the adventure of a human hero in Elﬁnesse (Lays 189.Middle-earth Minstrel
the earliest as the A text while those his father rewrote and revised constitute the B text..
written in December 1929. Lays 184). lines 25–26). 1925. The
two things that come out clearly are the sense of reality in the background
and the mythical value: the essence of myth being that it should have no
taint of allegory to the maker and yet should suggest incipient allegories
to the reader” (qtd. that the dates refer to
Tolkien’s “copying of verses out fair in the manuscript. adding support for Shippey’s theory that Sir
Orfeo contains the seeds of inﬂuence for Tolkien’s elves.) Although he does
78
. to give the poem an English interest by the unconvincing assurance that Traciens .
In the Auchinleck ms. line 21). September 17.. In the preface to his edition. the
inﬂuence is less tangible and perhaps was best described by Tolkien himself when he named Beowulf as his “most valued” source for The Hobbit..
in that instance Tolkien acknowledged he had been inﬂuenced by the Old
English epic but added. “it was not consciously present to the mind in the
process of writing” (qtd. in Chance 3). in C. (Sir
Orfeo./ while Elﬁn power yet held the land. however. He notes. This is not to say that Tolkien
deliberately set out to imitate or to “re-create” the medieval work. Lewis sent Tolkien fourteen
pages of commentary on the poem. a realm populated by
elves and ruled by an elf king. some of which Tolkien used in making
subsequent revisions (185). was the old name of Winchester” (Sisam
13). The narrative voice in the Gest states that
the elves “dwelt amid Beleriand. (The setting indicates they are Wood-elves. of Sir Orfeo. Tolkien./ In England .

Orfeo rescues Heurodis in the end.
and all thy limbs shall rend and tear [Trans. as in Sir Orfeo” (Author 255). “Rash Promises between mortals and the inhabitants of Faerie
are an old tradition. Orfeo sees “folk . King Orfeo bravely arms himself and calls
for “full ten hundred knights with him.
The hostility of the fairy king toward humans is again evident when Sir
Orfeo enters his hall.. he will not renege
on a promise he had made to Orfeo while enthralled by the mortal’s music. Shippey notes
that The Lay of Leithian “is full of motifs taken from earlier story..
The plots of both the Gest and Sir Orfeo revolve around the enmity
between supernatural beings and mortals. but were no
so” (lines 389–90). In Sir Orfeo. she
must go away with him or literally be torn to pieces:
If let or hindrance thou doest make.
and some no arms. we shall thee take. some bled
and through their bodies wounds were set [lines 391 –93].
But men and arms all prove useless when the fairy king comes for Heurodis:
yet from midst of that array
the queen was sudden snatched away./ all stoutly armed” (lines 183–84).
where’er thou be. mourned as dead. lines 169–171].
by magic was she from them caught. the fairy king initiates the action. but part of his success owes to a vestige
of honor embedded in the character of the fairy king. Barahir the robber baron.
In spite of the dire warning. Tolkien. Yet possessed of manly courage and motivated by love
for his wife. line 130). The mortal heroes also
have something in common: Sir Orfeo is a king who voluntarily became
a beggar and went to live in the forest among the animals. Orfeo’s mortal wife. nor feet. His father. but he is descended
from nobility.Tolkien’s Unﬁnished “Lay of Lúthien” and Sir Orfeo (Evans)
not explore the similarities between Sir Orfeo and the Gest. Beren is the
son of the leader of a robber band living in the forest. for in a dream he tells Heurodis. Sir Orfeo continues to seek his enemy in spite of the grotesque
sights he encounters along the way:
For some there stood who had no head.
79
.
and none knew whither she was brought [lines 191 –94].” and
remarks. “a prince of Men was
born” (Lays 198.

he is a primordial monstrous being who has taken over the land
and represents the incarnation of pure evil:
There sat a king: no Elﬁn race
nor mortal blood. Friedman indicates. Tolkien needed only to look back to his own recent war experiences: he had served as an infantry subaltern on the Somme in 1916 and
had lost two of his closest friends (Shippey Author x). knowing the power of Morgoth. lines 107–114]. than the ﬁre
that burns within more ﬁerce and dire.
Morgoth revealed his animosity toward humans before the initial meeting
80
. assumes that Beren
will die in the process. the Silmarilli were the three great jewels of the elves stolen by
Morgoth.) Thingol. However. Lúthien’s father. as J. stronger than the stone
the world is built of. and no doubt was convinced that
the Satan he had heard about in his boyhood catechism classes was real.
and thoughts profound were in his heart:
a gloomy power that dwelt apart [Lays.
Morgoth’s evil nature was central to the development of Tolkien’s plot. 197.Middle-earth Minstrel
In designing his Gest.
Clearly Morgoth is a satanic ﬁgure in the Gest (as he will be in the
future Slimarillion. who plays his ﬂute for Lúthien the night Beren ﬁrst sees her and
falls in love. Daeron’s hostility is rooted in jealousy because he loves
Lúthien himself and hates that she eventually gives her heart to the mortal. B. Another is the elf King Thingol of Doriath. Tolkien surpasses the medieval writer’s description of enmity between the fairy king and Sir Orfeo by creating not one
but several non-human enemies for Beren. nor kindly grace
of earth or heaven might he own. he must
steal one silmaril from the crown of the evil King Morgoth. Thingol strongly
opposes his daughter’s union with a mortal and so assigns Beren an impossible task: If Beren wants to win Lúthien’s hand. Thingol tells him.
just as the fairy king’s evil actions were crucial to the plot in Sir Orfeo. the medieval
author “quite pointedly” draws a connection between the fairy king with
Satan (190). Tolkien had learned
ﬁrst hand that evil existed in the world. (In The Silmarillion.
far older. he is the
closest counterpart of Orfeo’s fairy king in Tolkien’s Gest. One is the elﬁn minstrel
Daeron.) Tolkien did not need to ﬁnd a model for him in the
medieval lay of Sir Orfeo even if. the worst enemy Beren encounters is King
Morgoth.

Gorlim. she is dancing
in a lonely woodland clearing to music played by Daeron. lured by
the music. Sorrow over the loss of his wife
causes Sir Orfeo to age prematurely although his physical change in appearance occurs less dramatically. “Eilenel the fair” (Lays 200. Gorlim “dies a bitter death /and cursed himself with dying breath”
(lines 233–234).
Prematurely gray and depressed over the deaths of his father and his father’s
men. who was away at the time of the attack.Tolkien’s Unﬁnished “Lay of Lúthien” and Sir Orfeo (Evans)
of Beren and Lúthien. He had forced Beren’s father Barahir to abandon
his kingdom and throne. Beren hears beautiful music as he rides through the forest. becoming “grey
in his hair.
Beren experiences a similar reversal of fortune while riding in the forest. But Morgoth. he is drawn to the grove where he sees Lúthien.
Gorlim’s situation exploited by Morgoth has parallels with Sir Orfeo’s. to Morgoth. Morgoth boasts to the terriﬁed man
that Eilenel already walks among the dead and it is time for him to join
her. he wandered aimlessly in the forest and became an old man with
a gray beard. wants to
rescue his wife. But Beren arrives too late and ﬁnds them all
dead. Orfeo sets out to follow
the fairy king to his castle in order to rescue Heurodis. In Tolkien’s Gest. But Morgoth. and so agrees to Morgoth’s plan. but Morgoth convinces Gorlim that he can rescue Eilenel
if he will tell where Barahir and the others are dwelling. As soon as Gorlim
betrays Barahir and the other men. Beren ﬂees into the woods. Barahir and ten faithful retainers had taken refuge
in the forest to hide from Morgoth. It is in the forest that Sir
Orfeo serendipitously catches a glimpse of his wife and the fairy king out
on a hunting trip.
is ever the liar and so deliberately had deceived Gorlim. To convince Gorlim that Eilenel is alive. like the devil. to warn his father and the
others of Morgoth’s plans. a retainer named Gorlim. line
217).
Gorlim. like Sir Orfeo.
Yet it is while they are mourning in their respective forests that the
heroes each experience a reversal of fortune. His rueful ghost visits Beren in a nightmare and urges
Beren. Morgoth provides Gorlim with a glimpse of Eilenel
looking sad. his youth turned old” (line 552). After the heartbroken king abdicated his
throne.
coerces one member of the band. like Sir Orfeo. into betraying
the others. His sudden physical transformation also has a parallel in Sir Orfeo. had lost his wife. After burying his father. minstrel to her
81
. This incident parallels Sir Orfeo’s glimpse of his wife on a
hunting expedition with the fairy king. intent on ﬁnding them. Now convinced she is alive.

Middle-earth Minstrel
father. In this instance Tolkien creatively inverts portions of the Orfeo
plot: the mortal Beren goes to live in the woods, as does Sir Orfeo, but
while Sir Orfeo is saved in the woods by his ability to create music and
thereby experience the friendship of birds and beasts, Beren ﬁnds solace
in the woods not by his ability to make music but by hearing fairy music
that draws him to Lúthien.
In spite of the parallels noted, the Gest differs signiﬁcantly from the
Middle English Sir Orfeo in one crucial respect — the absence of a happy
ending, what Tolkien calls Eucatastrophe (“Fairy-stories” 68). Tolkien
believed Eucatastrophe (the opposite of catastrophe) was an important element of a successful fairy-story, and indeed Sir Orfeo provides two: Sir
Orfeo rescues his wife and he reclaims his throne from his faithful steward. Yet Tolkien does not provide a happy ending for Beren’s tale. The
reason for its absence perhaps stems from Tolkien’s need to be true to his
subject matter, some of which had sprung from his own life experience;
indeed, there is a strong personal element in the tale of Beren and Lúthien.
Not only does the name Lúthien appear under Edith Bratt Tolkien’s
name on their shared tombstone, but the name Beren is inscribed under
Tolkien’s own (Carpenter 293). As Jane Chance observes, “Beren the man,
linked with the Elf Lúthien, together a couple in whom Tolkien recognized himself and his wife Edith” (199). Lúthien, as described in the Gest,
is not unlike Tolkien’s 1917 description of his wife whom he described as
follows: “Her hair was raven, her skin clear, her eyes bright, and she could
sing — and dance” (qtd. in Carpenter 109). At that time, as Carpenter
notes, Tolkien was enjoying a brief military leave with her and their newborn, ﬁrst son (109). But it was also during this year, as his youngest son
maintains, that he devised the basic plan for Tinúviel (“Preface,” Children
9). After Edith’s death, Tolkien explained in a letter to his youngest son
why he wanted to include the name Lúthien on her tombstone: “She was
(and knew she was) my Lúthien” (qtd. in Carpenter 110).
It seems most likely that while composing his poetic Gest so many
years earlier, Tolkien had already identiﬁed with his protagonist, the “robber” Beren (intentionally punning on the epithet “Robber Baron”) who
dared to trespass into the realm of elﬁnesse and won Lúthien for his bride.
The marriage of Edith Bratt and J.R.R. Tolkien had met with considerable opposition (Carpenter 88–89), not unlike the wedding of their elﬁn
counterparts. Tolkien, serving as an ofﬁcer in a devastating war, knew that

82

Tolkien’s Unﬁnished “Lay of Lúthien” and Sir Orfeo (Evans)
in his world, where the presence of evil was as strong as Morgoth in Beren’s,
there could be no happy-ever-after ending. Any Eucatastrophe for Tolkien
and his bride could take place only at the Last Judgment.
The impossibility of the Gest ending happily is evident from the beginning. To win his bride, Beren must do the impossible, steal a Silmaril from
Morgoth. When Tolkien began composing the Gest, he faced an uncertain future as a young philologist and academic, and had set for himself
a seemingly impossible task in his desire to recover the lost mythology of
England. Shippey comments that early in his career Tolkien had felt “that
a consistency and a sense lay beneath the chaotic ruin of the old poetry
of the North — if only someone would dig it out” (Road, 64). As young
scholar and ﬂedgling writer of fantasy, Tolkien was trying to do just that.
No wonder he identiﬁed with the robber Beren in this early poetic work
and some years later, with Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, whose stated profession was burglar.
Yet in the Gest, Beren is more than a robber born a prince; he is
Tolkien’s rendition of Orpheus, the mythic hero who in the modern era
had become an icon for poets and musicians. Venerated in ancient Greece
as the son of Apollo and the muse Calliope, Orpheus was believed capable of soothing savage beasts with his music and song, and when his
beloved bride Eurydice died from a snake bite, he followed her into the
underworld where he charmed Hades with his music (“Orpheus,” Oxford
Dictionary of Classical Myth & Religion, 394). If Beren is Tolkien’s reconstruction of Sir Orfeo, an anonymous medieval poet’s reconstruction of
the mythic hero Orpheus, Beren then becomes Tolkien’s reconstructed
post-war Orpheus, one twice removed from the mythic original. Created
after the Great War had transformed the world, Tolkien’s Beren could never
be more than an imperfect reﬂection of the mythic hero. Beren is not a
musician but only a lover of music. He is not a composer of music but a
robber assigned a robber’s task. While the singing and dancing of the superior Lúthien bring solace to her mortal lover, she cannot protect him or
their world from monstrous evil. Lúthien can and does ease Beren’s pain,
but for her effort, she will share his human destiny.
In Orpheus: The Myth of the Poet, Charles Segal discusses several twentieth-century writers (not Tolkien) who chose to retell the Orpheus myth.
Segal explains that modern writers are drawn to the Orpheus myth for various reasons, from reﬂecting “on the banalization of art and feeling in

83

Middle-earth Minstrel
modern society” to seeing “Orpheus as a voice of hope and renewal amid
brutalization and fragmentation” (197). If Tolkien is drawing upon the
Orpheus myth in his Gest of Beren and Lúthien, as is being suggested, his
reasons for doing so seem to belong to both categories, but especially the
latter. In the fragments of his unﬁnished poetic romance, Lúthien, not
Orpheus, may be seen as Tolkien’s symbol of hope and renewal in a world
that he personally had seen brutalized and fragmented by the Great War.
It is hardly surprising, then, that Tolkien returned to this story some twenty
years later, after having lived through yet another, even more devastating
war, one that enlisted the services of two sons and caused the physical
destruction of signiﬁcant portions of his beloved England. Surely he sensed
the presence of Morgoth in the midst of such horrors.

Rise, my true knight. As children learn, be thou
Wiser for falling! walk with me, and move
To music with thine Order and the King.1
In hawthorn-time the heart grows light,
The world is sweet in sound and sight...
And all his life of blood and breath
Sang out within him: time and death.2
...I must follow in their train
Down the crooked fairy lane
Where the coney-rabbits long ago have gone,
And where silvery they sing
In a moving moonlit ring...
O! the warmth! O! the hum! O! the colors in the dark!
O! the gauzy wings of golden honey-ﬂies!
O! the music of their feet — of their dancing goblin feet!
O! the magic O! the sorrow when it dies.3
These poetic lines of Tennyson, Swinburne, and Tolkien, while encompassing about a 60-year period (1842, 1896, and 1915, respectively), all refer
to some type of musical allusions throughout not only these works, but many
of these authors’ other poetic and prose writings. Tennyson often uses the
musical harmony/disharmony theme in his Arthurian works. Swinburne,

85

and the incorporation of rhyme and prosody into
Victorian ﬁction. and dance as an important
structural element. Tolkien was the last
in a long line of Victorian philologist/ﬁction writers). Many of the great Victorian scholars and
philologists were also contributors to the wealth of Victorian ﬁction and
fantasy that arose in the nineteenth century (in fact. the singing/enchantment/
ancient origin tales such as the Finnish Kalevala (which we know had a
strong early inﬂuence on Tolkien) and Icelandic sagas. including the
romantic compositions of Richard Wagner. just to name a few. also incorporated musical themes and phrases throughout
his works. along with the discovery and
translation of many medieval legends and myths. song. and emulation of Victorian concepts
86
. Tolkien also picked up the idea
(consciously or unconsciously) of music.
Although Tolkien has been quoted that he never imitated anyone’s
writing style nor ever used current literature or events as analogies or
metaphors in his writings. all had an inﬂuence on Tolkien’s writing style. his writings
indicate a strong predilection. particularly in relation to musical-literary symbolism.Middle-earth Minstrel
often compared to and in competition with Tennyson and his writings during his lifetime. And in his ﬁrst published poetry. The interest in ancient
languages. the writings of three major English Victorian ﬁctionists are examined. the author is
currently researching and writing a book that will examine the conscious
and subconscious musical inﬂuences on Tolkien’s writings. use. The resurgence of Arthurian literature during the Victorian
period.
and parallels between their use of musical-literary language and Tolkien’s
are illustrated. parallels to the theosophical
writings current in the nineteenth century. the inﬂuence of medieval
philosophers such as Plotinus and Augustine. careful study of Tolkien’s writings show an
extensive predilection and use of musical language similar to the Victorian writers. the rise of philology and the study of ancient and medieval languages as a discipline. their sound and pronunciation. There are obviously many tangents and inﬂuences to follow when
speaking of musical inﬂuence on Tolkien’s writing style. whether
he chose to admit it or not. For this article. helped to feed the growth
of ﬁctional poetry and prose based on Arthurian legend and medieval
myths.
This essay will focus on the inﬂuence of English Victorian ﬁction on
Tolkien’s writing style. Although Tolkien grew up in Edwardian England.
One cannot discuss all of these inﬂuences in a single article.

and even the university environment of
Oxford itself was reﬂective of the medieval culture from which it had ﬁrst
emerged. But
medievalism was also simultaneously a part of that vast intellectual and emotional response to change which we somewhat fuzzily denominate Romanticism. As we have seen. Pugin. William Stubbs. were built
to contrast dramatically with factory smokestacks and commercial industry. In historiography. railway stations and public buildings. Alfred Tennyson. and Edward
Freeman looked back into the English past. the essays of Victorians such as John Ruskin.Strains of Elvish Song and Voices (Eden)
and techniques. the works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood. cultural.
Thomas Carlyle. It was this heritage into which
Tolkien was born and grew up. R. Green. its
attempt to create a coherent world view. In
painting.
87
. and Benjamin Disraeli were constant and
politically motivated. primitivism. and his love of trees and nature. medievalism was a
response to historic change and to the problems raised by the various revolutions and transformations of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Even Tolkien’s profound distaste for all things related to technology. creativity. music and its relationships. In social and aesthetic criticism. Finally. the Victorians
sought to emulate the Middle Ages. and joy with
medievalism points up the other major aspect of the medieval revival. while short-lived. and political pursuits. Neo-Gothic law courts and town halls. served to inspire styles of painting well
into the twentieth century. Algernon Charles Swinburne. and music as a unifying concept
and theme that consciously or unconsciously ebbs and ﬂows throughout
his writings. Even in their physical environment. A. as well as use Arthurian romances and themes. W. the Oxford
Movement sought to bring back the ancient liturgical and musical traditions once practiced in English cathedrals prior to the Dissolution. particularly his earlier endeavors to write ﬁction. In religion.
cathedrals and churches. harmony.
The concept of “medievalism” in the Victorian period comprised a wide
range of artistic. in literature. William Morris. the writings and constitutional work of scholars such as J.
and William Morris sought to emulate ancient and medieval prose and
poetry. not the least of which is a strong emphasis on music and
its power. can trace its source back to the
Victorians and their concept of medievalism:
The association of such ideas as nature. and chivalry
were the norm rather than the exception. to transport their
readers into a “heroic age” where things such as honor. virtue. As such it had links to the renaissance of interest in nature.

Throughout the Idylls. As part of the Romantic contradiction of these concepts. It was opposed to the Newtonian and
Lockean view of the universe as a vast machine in which man was a subordinate mechanism moved by pleasure and pain. and the creative. capable of loyal feeling and heroic action. whom he
does not recognize. and eventually end up killing each other. The return to the Middle Ages was conceived of as a homecoming. and both are fatally wounded. especially the tragic tale Balin and Balan. In this tale.5 All three incorporated
musical themes and motives throughout their ﬁction. Idylls of
the King (1859–74). Balin.
Algernon Charles Swinburne. Balin ﬁghts his own brother. He
wounds King Pellam with the sacred spear that pierced the side of Christ. especially in relation
to their Victorian “resetting” of the medieval Arthurian and French epic
tales.Middle-earth Minstrel
and the supernatural and to the increasing valuation placed upon the organic.
in particular. medieval man was seen as part of it. and his chivalry mirrored its benevolence. to naturalize man in the
universe and make him feel related to it. Both aspects of medievalism — the political
and the metaphysical — saw materialism and mechanization as inimical to the
human. which is recounted in the Old French
Suite du Merlin and Malory’s Morte d’Arthur. Tennyson weaves musical ideas
such as harmony and discord into a number of the Arthurian stories. and William Morris. medievalism substituted a picture of man as a dynamic
and generous creature. is instrumental in the downfall of Arthur’s Camelot. the twin brothers Balin and
Balan are cursed by fate. composed in 1885 (the last story in
the Idylls to be written). medievalism as a philosophical movement thus paralleled its opposition to machinery
on economic and social grounds. In its hostility to a mechanistic metaphysics. Just as medievalism was very much a part of the
desire to give man a sense of social and political belonging. In the end. Tennyson makes Balin
an important ﬁgure in developing some of the major themes in The Idylls
88
.
and is best known as the Poet Laureate of England from 1850 until his death. in the decline of any transcendental order.
the joyous.
and for his epic tale of King Arthur and the knights of Camelot.4
The three Victorian writers whose works best illustrate the blending
of medievalism with musico-literary symbolism were Alfred Tennyson. Balin also wields and will not give up a sword that has been prophesied to him will slay the man he loves most in the world and bring about
his own destruction.
the blow known as the Dolorous Stroke (the Fisher King story in the Grail
epic). Far from being
isolated from nature.
Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892) started writing poetry at a young age. so it was also an
attempt.

Balan…. whom when Arthur seeing asked
“Tell me your names. and all the world
Made music. and he felt his being move
In music with his Order. and gayest garlandage of ﬂowers. ‘the Savage’— that addition thine —
My brother and my better. this man here. it is essential to mention some lines of Balin and Balan.
And cup clashed cup. and the King. just like Arthur’s lofty goals and dreams
for his realm:
Thereafter. the power of music is weaved into Balin’s personality at that moment. music
that is harmonious and orderly. and thus to raise themselves to a higher level.
89
. made
Those banners of twelve battles overhead
Stir. His Balin is known as “the Savage” (Malory called him “Balin
Le Savage”) and he has a major role in the struggle of Arthur to destroy
the bestial both in the realm and in his subjects. both in his achievement and in his ultimate fate:
So Balin bare the crown. says:
They followed.
Even after Balin is granted the boon of bearing the Queen’s crownroyal upon his shield.
For instance. as they stirred of old. Balan immediately upon introducing himself to Arthur.
Along the walls and down the board. a song of welcome. when Sir Balin entered hall.Strains of Elvish Song and Voices (Eden)
of the King. mounting. whereupon
Their common shout in chorus. and all the knights
Approved him.
Sweet-voiced. when Arthur’s host
Proclaimed him Victor. and the Queen.”6
There are constant references to music in the court at Camelot. the level of the angels. they drank and some one sang. and the day was won. why sat ye by the well?”
Balin the stillness of a minute broke
Saying “An unmelodious name to thee. they sat.
Balin.
The Lost one Found was greeted as in Heaven
With joy that blazed itself in woodland wealth
Of leaf.
To illustrate some of Tennyson’s use of music and language in his
Arthurian epic.

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) was born into the British
aristocracy.
Goodnight. and Edward Burne-Jones. William Morris.
Hath ever and anon a note so thin
It seems another voice in other groves. and throughout the 1860s and 1870s was in an alcoholic stupor. true brother here! goodmorrow there!
We two were born together.
Goodnight! for we shall never bid again
Goodmorrow — Dark my doom was here. aptly described by Tennyson.Middle-earth Minstrel
The nightingale.
As Balin begins to lose his sanity. and dark
It will be there.
Thus. especially after discovering the
Queen and Lancelot in a secret tryst. he acquired a detailed
knowledge of religion and the Bible.
The music in him seemed to change. The tenderness and emotion
as the two brothers die in each other’s arms has a considerable effect on
the reader:
“O brother” answered Balin “Woe is me!
My madness all thy life has been thy doom. as Balin
attacks and wounds King Pellam. either locked in either’s arm. the musical language used to describe
him becomes more discordant and twisted.”
Balan answered low
“Goodnight.
90
. full-toned in middle May.
Thy curse. and ﬁghts the anonymous knight that
he eventually discovers is his own brother. and early on was trained by his grandfather and mother in the
French and Italian languages. and established friendships with
Dante Gabriel Rossetti. I scarce can see thee now. true brother. I see thee now no more. and darkened all thy day. Balin’s personality begins to
turn into that of a raging beast. after some quick burst of sudden wrath. and now
The night has come. and grow
Faint and far-off. and slept the sleep
With Balin. Swinburne was in frail health most of his life and of slight build (he was under
5 feet tall).
I would not mine again should darken thine. and we die
Together by one doom:” and while he spoke
Closed his death-drowsing eyes. As a student at Oxford.

He
openly ﬂaunted his homosexuality and his masochistic tendencies. and seeks to symbolize the musical harmony inherent in the
Arthurian realm prior to the tragedy of Balen. and even promoted the works of American writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman.” Swinburne actively wrote on the desperate passions and
hatreds of the human psyche that were contained in the Arthurian legends. examination of the work itself is essential to understanding
the extensive use of imagery that Swinburne incorporates throughout this
work.
In 1896. and these
appeared often in his writings. He challenged all of the norms and conventions of his time. Far
from portraying the Victorian’s obsession with medievalism as an idyllic
or “golden age.
Again. his use of musical imagery is even more vivid and dramatic than
Tennyson’s.
Seemed ageless as the sun. that which is full of the sea and the wild:
And all his life of blood and breath
Sang out within him: time and death
Were even as words a dreamer saith
When sleep within him slackeneth.
the alba. He was quite the personality within Victorian
society.
As such. His poems are
on tragic love and heroism. Balen contains the “Northern” spirit. The opening of The Tale of Balen is provided at the beginning of
this article. by
ﬁckle men and women who are victims of a malevolent fate.Strains of Elvish Song and Voices (Eden)
Finally.
The hours wherethrough the spring’s breath rang. but was always sick for
the remainder of his life. dominated by strife and frustrated love.
The moors and woods that shone and sang. He was a
scholar in the truest sense. in 1879. Swinburne published his own version of the Arthurian tale
of Balin and Balan. and Hugo). He introduced Victorian society to medieval
French troubadour poetry and contemporary French literature (especially
Bautier. he revived medieval forms such as the rondel.
The steed between his knees that sprang. he was able to give up alcoholism. called The Tale of Balen. and the ballad.
And light and life and spring were one. This poem was written in
direct opposition to Tennyson’s recent version of this Arthurian tale. Baudelaire.
When confronted by a knight who debased his Northern heritage at
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.

Middle-earth Minstrel
Arthur’s court.
As morning hears before it run
The music of the mounting sun.
Shone strange as fate Morgause. Balen has
killed the Lady of the Lake. and no matter
how virtuous his motives are. sea. with eyes
That dwelt on days afar.
So hears our hope what life may be. The use of nature.
92
. As a central symbol of fate.
And laughs to watch his trophies won
From darkness. Launceor. and must accept the fate that he
will slay that which he loves the most. Garlon. and her hosts undone. if
not tragedy. Balen strikes him down and is cast from Arthur’s court. Here is just a small sample of Swinburne’s musical symbolism7:
But bright and dark as night or noon
And lowering as a storm-ﬂushed moon
When clouds and thwarting winds distune
The music of the midnight. By the end of the tale.
And knows it not for death.
From choral earth and quiring air
Rang memories winged like songs that bear
Sweet gifts for spirit and sense to share:
For no man’s life knows love more fair
And fruitful of memorial things
Than this the deep dear love that breaks
With sense of life on life.
The whole world of Balen is truly dolorous and strange. and makes
The sundawn sunnier as it wakes
Where morning round it rings. his actions inevitably generate suffering.
And all the night become a breath. and eventually his own
brother Balan. Balen obtains the sword that no
one else in Camelot’s court can conquer. and musical imagery is very reminiscent of Tolkien’s early mythological writings. soon
To die from darkening star to star
And leave a silence in the skies
That yearns till dawn ﬁnd voice and rise.
Nor dreams that fear should hear and ﬂee
The summer menace of the sea.

dire in sight and sound. was the
93
.
And winds dishevel as they blow
The lovely stormy wings of snow. whence all the loud wood sang
With winged and living sound that sprang
Like ﬁre.
William Morris (1834–96). and went toward him: all too soon
He too then rose.Strains of Elvish Song and Voices (Eden)
And there they laid their dead to sleep
Royally.
And forth again they rode.
And Balen rose again from swoon
First. and keen as ﬁre’s own fang
Pierced the sweet silence that it slew.
The hearts of northern men burn bright
With joy that mocks the joy of spring
To hear all heaven’s keen clarions ring
Music that bids the spirit sing
And day give thanks for night. and the evil boon
Of strength came back.
As toward a royal hart’s death rang
That note.
In winter. lying where wild winds keep
Keen watch and wail more soft and deep
Than where men’s choirs bid music weep
And song like incense heave and swell.
A castle girt about and bound
With sorrow like a spell. in stark contrast to Swinburne. when the year burns low
As ﬁre wherein no ﬁrebrands glow. and the evil tune
Of battle unnatural made again
Mad music as for death’s wide ear
Listening and hungering toward the near
Last sigh that life or death might hear
At last from dying men. they whose troop drew near
As death among them drew.
But nought like death or strife was here:
Fair semblance and most goodly cheer
They made him. and found
Before them.

and Sir Galahad: A Christmas
Mystery.
Morris also used poetry as his preferred device to depict the Arthurian
romances. which was a moated grange where medieval festivities
were still actually observed. no Christianity. King Arthur’s Tomb. In Arthur’s House.
(The Defence of Guenevere)
For no man cares now to know why I sigh. as well as carpets.”
(In Arthur’s House)
It chanced upon a day that Launcelot came
To dwell at Arthur’s court: at Christmas-time
This happened. Through a number of poems. As a youth he became a
devotee of Pugin and a disciple of Ruskin. his craftsmanship still survives today in various museums and galleries around the
world. with little change of rhyme. seemed to chime
Along with all the bells that rang that day. His News from Nowhere (1890) is a
story of a dream by a time-traveler who sees an England of the future —
a future similar to the fourteenth century. The
only difference is that there are no churches. poetry. Morris’s
inﬂuence on Victorian medievalism was profound and unique. such as The Defence of Guenevere. His parents presented him with a tiny suit of
armor to wear about the family estate as a child. Morris designed all
types of medieval materials in the nineteenth century. whose work on medieval craftsmanship inspired Morris to base his life on that ideal.” he said.Middle-earth Minstrel
ideal Victorian medievalist. when the heralds sung his name.
and the translation of Icelandic sagas.
O’er the white roofs. Here are just
a few samples of his musical symbolism8:
“Nay Dame. “I am but young.
A little have I lived and sung
And seen thy face this happy noon.
Woodford Hall.
And no man comes to sing me pleasant songs.
Son of King Ban of Benwick. He was raised in a fantasy world in his home.
Nor any brings me the sweet ﬂowers that lie
(The Defence of Guenevere)
That very evening in their scarlet sleeves
94
. Morris uses musical and sea imagery to great effect. from architecture
to painting to furniture to gardens. after a violent revolution. calligraphy.

but that this predilection had unfortunately not surfaced in him.. a dragon’s song or colour. Tolkien refers to the fact that his family has musical talent. but from Tolkien’s own personal background.
Do neighbors musical in western lands. until the leaves. and there
was sound of singing.12
I’ll sit and sing till the moon comes.. as they sing
beyond the mountains.. no maid will talk
Of sitting on my tomb. Carpenter’s biography of Tolkien often makes reference to musical inﬂuences in
Tolkien’s life.
Grown big upon the bushes of the walk. His grandfather was a piano maker. while minstrels played on
harp and ﬂute slowly...R... Cursory
research of Tolkien’s early published poetry illustrates the strong Victorian tendencies towards music symbolism:
And songs long silent once more awake9
Or shrill in sudden singing sheer. and how much Tolkien himself
enjoyed the sound of music throughout his home..R. and harps were wrung.
There melodies of music spill.Strains of Elvish Song and Voices (Eden)
The gay-dress’d minstrels sing.. The poetry quoted at the beginning
of the article was Tolkien’s ﬁrst published work at the age of 23. Tolkien’s writings.
They sang their song.10
In mighty music from his monstrous head. were strongly inﬂuenced by the musico-literary symbolism of
Victorian ﬁctionists. and
in his Letters.
An examination of Tolkien’s early poetic endeavors reveals this
predilection for musical symbolism..
A sad song.
and he sang a dirge for Higgins..
Flutes there were. The conscious/subconscious use of musical language
and symbolism arises not only from the Victorian tradition. especially his early mythological and poetic
endeavors.. especially his wife Edith’s talent in piano playing (a prerequisite for all women in Victorian society)...
(Sir Galahad: A Christmas Mystery)
J.13
These are only a few of the musical allusions that are prevalent in
95
.11
a sudden music came to her.

Dairon
is Lúthien’s brother.14 The Book of
Lost Tales. 107. Obviously. again another strong indication that Tolkien was trying to portray the way medieval audiences would
have heard and listened to the great stories of their past. but he appears in various other stories. Here are a few of these examples:
Tinfang Warble: Tinfang Warble is the greatest minstrel in Middleearth.” but also much of the foundation upon which Middleearth would later be built. presence of. In addition. In the list of the greatest minstrels ever.
Dairon: In the ﬁrst versions of the Beren and Lúthien saga.
despite his comments to the contrary. begun between 1916–17. Tinfang takes ﬁrst place
above Maglor and Dairon. contains not only the earliest versions
of “Ainulindalë. and is attested
to by Tolkien in his listing of the three greatest musicians ever in Middleearth. but his early inﬂuence on Tolkien is profound. where he recounts some of the stories of the Valar that
would eventually ﬁnd their way into The Silmarillion. that reading the published versions does not
do justice to his imaginative power and both conscious and subconscious
references to music.Middle-earth Minstrel
Tolkien’s early published poetry. and reference to music in Tolkien’s earlier versions of
his mythology are so strong. In any event. What we are reading is the documentation of that experience by the listener. Part of his history is told in the Book of Lost
Tales p. and the musical nature of the
creation of Middle-earth has been commented upon before.
and not her brother. “Ainulindalë” in The Silmarillion was written early in Tolkien’s career. Tolkien was inﬂuenced early on by
the concept of chivalry and the idea of “loving from afar” which was very
much a part of the trouvere/troubadour tradition in medieval music. these early stories illustrate the
broad inﬂuence of the Victorian period upon Tolkien’s writing style. His early appearance is in relation to the telling of the tales in the
Book of Lost Tales. it is a fascinating personal account to follow the development of
96
. such that he eventually becomes a lover of Lúthien from afar. Tolkien’s early mythological works continue these musical associations. the
use of. Tinfang does not
appear in any published stories. What is interesting is Tolkien’s gradual diminishing of Dairon’s musical role and power in
the story.
Almost all of Tolkien’s early work is done in the context of tales/stories as
related or sung to a listener or listeners. particularly stories related
to the Beren and Lúthien lay. While his power as a musician is great. one whose power and use of music is even more profound than the published version of the story indicates.

similar to a musical composer using
all the resources at his or her disposal to present a symphonic masterpiece. and volume.
and even the end of days regarding the Sun and Moon. the description of Lúthien’s
song to rescue Beren from Thu and destroy the prison where Beren is being
held. Song
of the Sun and Moon. The Bowman’s Friendship.
Names of songs: More than any other topic. which are much more powerful here than in the published The Silmarillion. These are powerful. was the legend
of the making of the Sun and Moon. detailed account in
his early writings of the construction. In fact. in the Lays of Beleriand.
One major story that does not appear in The Silmarillion. the character of Túrin deserves mention. The published version in The Silmarillion does little justice to Tolkien’s early efforts in writing this story. harmony. especially in regards to the Vision vs. and Light as Leaf on Lindentree (which Aragorn
quotes from and sings on Weathertop). There is a long. and ﬁnally the description of Beren’s song of farewell to earth and
light after leaving Lúthien and Huan as he starts to enter Morgoth’s
domain. Tolkien’s earlier
97
. This legend. personalities involved. Tolkien names songs in
his earlier writings. texture.
Song of the Great Bow.
including melody. Song of the Sleeper. Three of these musical/dramatic events. The Siege of Angband. These are just a few of the titles. Flight of the Gnomes. Indeed. are the battle of music
and song between Finrod Felagund and Thê. but for
which Tolkien spent a lot of time writing and rewriting.
In addition. Song
of Aryador. Song of Light. while
I have not had sufﬁcient time to examine and research it. the Song of Tuor for Earendel (which is in 3 versions and 5 different texts). the verse versions of the Beren and
Lúthien story are ﬁlled with some of the most powerful language this author
has ever encountered in mythological literature on the use and power of
music.
Finally.Strains of Elvish Song and Voices (Eden)
Dairon as a character in Tolkien’s writings. A list of some of these songs includes: Song of the Valar. evocative.
Carpenter’s and even Tolkien’s references to powerful links between linguistics and music in his life are very apparent in these early writings. songs that he then proceeds to compose either in verse
or prose. also holds many
links to the philosophy of Plotinus. the metered version of
the lay of Beren and Lúthien contains some very powerful references to
Dairon’s power as a musician and his use of music to affect change in environment and circumstances. launching. instrumentation.
Reality model of Neoplatonism. musical events in which drama
and music are interwoven and recited.

would be far greater than the worth of the
results. Túrin’s abilities as a minstrel and musician made him probably
the greatest musician among Men. Just as the medieval world saw
music both consciously and subconsciously apparent in both the practical
and the divine. I think. from meeting Ulmo and hearing his many-faceted
musical instrument.Middle-earth Minstrel
stories and accounts of Túrin are powerful and do little justice to his character in The Silmarillion. before they
were given a place inside the story. It was such a common understanding that music guided and
directed everything. and to the nature of the story
98
. Whether he chose to admit it or not. and from the Music of the Ainur such as it still existed
in the sound of the sea. and most of his training was from the
elves in Gondolin. much of which never made it into the The Silmarillion. as stated previously. as I said. music was studied and respected as part of the
quadrivium along with geometry. and when
transferred to the prepared linguistic situation in my story would receive meaning and signiﬁcance according to that situation. astronomy and arithmetic in the Middle Ages.
In conclusion. so in Tolkien’s writings the idea of music underlies yet intertwines all of the early verse and prose versions of his mythological world. where it is still felt and heard the strongest amongst
the elves. Not only are musical links extensive and vast. the Victorian predilection towards medievalism. between philology and musical composition. and
for musical symbolism in particular. exists in 3 versions and
5 texts.
As Tolkien well knew.
but Túrin’s power as a musician and his training in Gondolin as a minstrel
are truly dramatic in both the verse and prose versions of the Fall of Gondolin story. As for his musical leanings.
the song of Tuor for Earendel.
much more so than is apparent in The Silmarillion. between the
sound and construction of words and the timbres and pitches of music.” the actual way in which I came
to light on or choose certain sequences of sound to use as names. that the discipline itself was studied as a scholarly pursuit rather than a practical application.
or in the guess-work of others. The spoken forms would simply be mere audible forms. Indeed. Tolkien often referred in his
Letters and other correspondence of the close relationship between linguistics and music. had a strong inﬂuence on Tolkien’s
writing style. One passage in particular illustrates Tolkien’s views on his early compositional process:
This leads to the matter of “external history. this is unimportant: the
labour involved in my setting out what I know and remember of the process. he was inﬂuenced by
Victorian writers.

edu/camelot/swinbal. and
his own love of both music and linguistics combined to produce one of
the greatest mythologies ever written. and in his
own way his mythology and his stories are true symphonic works in the
linguistic sense.)
3. Algernon Charles Swinburne.
7.
99
.
6. p. Sir Edmund Gosse and Thomas James Wise (New
York: Russell and Russell. Lines 72–74
from Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. 1973). but I can ﬁnd no direct inﬂuence of MacDonald on Tolkien’s
early mythological writings.R. but the implication in the quotation of himself as a “composer of words. “Goblin Feet.htm. IV: Poetical Works. pp. professional. Douglas A. MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. The Victorian medieval/musical-literary heritage helped to inspire Tolkien’s compositional process.” which is an apt analogy. Rosenberg.rochester.
2. ed. available at
http://www. “The interpolation serves to stress the motif of music
versus discord that is especially prominent in “Balin and Balan” and that runs throughout the Idylls” (footnote). 78. It would be entirely delusory to refer to the sources of the sound-combination to discover any meanings overt or hidden.H.lib. 1968). in Tales before Tolkien (New York: Ballantine. and religious life. 1970). 1915). especially George MacDonald.
4. part of his personal. MacDonald’s inﬂuence on Tolkien’s writings can be
speciﬁcally attributed to Tolkien’s concept of children’s literature and especially the production of The Hobbit.
65.
1896. The Complete Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne. Quotes from Balin and Balan are taken from The Camelot Project.
Notes
1. The Fall of Camelot: A Study of Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King”
(Cambridge. p. p. Vol.15
What is wonderful about this statement is not just Tolkien’s opinion
on how he created words in his languages.lib. comments on the many writers whose inﬂuence on Tolkien is both recorded or implied. Anderson. and to be sure it was a strong
inﬂuence on his writing style. Blackwell. J. he certainly can be described as a composer of words. Tolkien. Quotes from The Tale of Balen are taken from The Camelot Project. Alice Chandler. as it appeared in its many and varied guises
throughout his mythology.” Oxford Poetry (Oxford: B.rochester. A Dream of Order: The Medieval Ideal in Nineteenth-Century
English Literature (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 2003). his musical roots
helped to nurture his interest in philology and the sound of words. John D.Strains of Elvish Song and Voices (Eden)
told.
Whether or not Tolkien thought of himself as a true composer in the musical sense.edu/camelot/idyl-bal.
5. available at
http://www. 171. Music was certainly part of his heritage.htm.R. 7–8. (The beginning stanzas of The Fall of Balin.

allow evil to happen?3 Saint Augustine posited in The Confessions that God
gave us choices. The dissonance is not surprising. How can a divine creator. Tolkien’s equivalent
on many levels to the biblical Lucifer.2 readily embrace the evil suggested by the dissonance?
His action raises a still more puzzling question: Why does Ilúvatar allow
evil to enter the world?
Allowing evil into the world is a problem that Christians have puzzled over for centuries. our free will. Jensen
As one reads “The Ainulindalë” chapter from J. Melkor. Tolkien’s The
Silmarillion carefully. I believed that there was
some such substance of evil which possessed its own foul and formless
102
. who can do anything. has created a dissonance in the
Divine Music that Ilúvatar conducts. but
what is odd is that not only does Ilúvatar allow it. but he announces that
Melkor’s dissonance is part of his divine plan to begin with. His theory stems from his dissatisfaction with Manichean notions that both good and evil existed in opposition to one another in a corporeal form. the ultimate force for good. an odd event occurs. furthermore. “[a]s a result.R. that allows evil
to happen: “when I willed or did not will something.
considering that Melkor is the embodiment of evil in The Silmarillion. I was utterly certain
that none other than myself was willing or not willing” (Chadwick 114).R. Does such a
statement by Ilúvatar hint at malice on his part? Can Ilúvatar. and that it is our choices. he notes this
“erroneous” point when he writes.Dissonance in the Divine Theme:
The Issue of Free Will
in Tolkien’s Silmarillion1
Keith W.
so any wrongdoing was his own choice.

it could in some way ﬁght with God. After the expulsion from the Garden.
Augustine’s issue with corporeality leads to another conundrum. making him “capable of violation and corruptible” (Bourke 164). Augustine would discover.: [the Manicheans] pictured it as a malignant mind creeping over
the earth” (Bourke 121). it casts doubt on God’s
omnipotence. but. in Genesis the choice in Eden was between doing good or
doing evil (17–18). So the creation of dissonance is necessary for there to be the conﬂict needed to allow
humans to learn from their mistakes and to grow. This answer may
then explain Ilúvatar permitting Melkor’s dissonance. to turn away from God:
“the choice is left to man.. just as humanity does. the consequences of the
choice are eternally ﬁxed and determined by God” (Deane 16). perhaps even injure or defeat Him.
Ultimately.4 The problem. he had difﬁculty accepting the Incarnation because he could not accept that it was possible for Christ to exist
without the possibility of deﬁlement of the ﬂesh (Bourke 122). In his search. This chapter will explore
the concepts of dissonance and free will. The issue
with this notion of free will is that free will is not the same after the Fall
as it was before the Fall. 5 how they apply to the Divine
Theme of Ilúvatar through a careful reading of “The Ainulindalë. for the cause of evil. couldn’t he stop
people from making poor choices or correct the poor choices they make?
Yet He doesn’t. If such an event is possible.Dissonance in the Divine Theme ( Jensen)
mass. Yet he ultimately came to believe that God is “incorruptible and inviolable and
immutable” (Bourke 162).
Deane’s discussion is helpful in explaining Augustinian thought. Tolkien was a storyteller at heart. and there would be no story. “his freedom was
reduced to the choice between one or another sin” (Deane 19). and it
begs the question that if God can create a whole world. he has to look for an answer by which he would
“not be forced to believe that the immutable God is mutable” (Bourke 165).
then.” and
103
. is that. which is not an acceptable answer to Augustine. The only way evil
can exist is for a being to move away from good. and stories need conﬂict.
because of this Manichean belief. he came to a Neo-Platonic conclusion that evil has no reality
of its own and is simply the loss of good (Deane 15). Why? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that we would
then no longer be human. but
even a careful reading of The Confessions raises more questions than it actually answers. He hasn’t solved the issue of where evil comes from. as we shall see. According to Herbert Deane’s interpretation of
Augustine.
which is that if evil is corporeal..

if someone sings
a solo.Middle-earth Minstrel
how free will can lead both to tragedy and Eucatastrophe. emotion. because he seeks to “bring into Being things
of his own” (Tolkien 16) against the music conceived by Ilúvatar.
Of course. In a choir. which explains
its necessity in our world and the world of Middle-earth. the music
sounds the same. While words such as “unpleasant” and “grating” are
often used to explain what dissonance sounds like. there can be no dissonance.
if everyone sings the exact same melodic line.
Dissonance
According to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.. It may sound pretty. which would indicate that he is already allotting them free will. in-sync music that would bring forth great beauty. and
expressiveness in music” (“Consonance and Dissonance”). Ilúvatar’s intent is to create a harmonious. What adds interest. Melkor. he has
already allowed for each member of the Ainur to bring his own “spice” to
the music. and. however. “The buildup
and release of tension (dissonance and resolution) .” but because he has kindled within them the
Flame Imperishable.” Ilúvatar tells the Ainur to harmonize a “Great Music.
decides to literally take Ilúvatar up on his offer.v. is to a great degree
responsible for what many listeners perceive as beauty. they will be able to adorn the Music with “his own
thoughts and devices” (Tolkien 15). Essentially. a monophony. the spice if you will. his music
creates dissonance in the Divine Theme. all music incorporates
dissonance in some way (“Consonance and Dissonance”). God’s brightest angel who falls from Grace. dissonance is “an antonym to consonance.. and begins to weave his
own ideas into the music. hence a discordant sounding
together of two or more notes perceived as having ‘roughness’ or ‘tonal
tension’” (s. 7:380).
Using a musical metaphor from Judy Kaplow (a colleague). is the act of an individual
choosing to sing something different within a community of singers. In many ways. who has the greatest of the gifts given to the Ainur. but it is simple and often uninteresting.
At the beginning of “The Ainulindalë. and such dissonance can only be created through individuality. The person is working alone. dissonant chords or notes are necessary to ﬁll out and complete a musical
selection. which
causes the dissonance. so anyone with a
background in Judeo-Christian theology might assume that Melkor will
104
. Melkor resembles
Lucifer.

this is an important departure from the
Christian mythos with which Tolkien’s work is so often “compared and
associated” (128). As Flieger also points out. and other difﬁculties. No one can change the music. which is not just the direct result of Melkor’s rebellion. Ilúvatar has granted his peoples the choice to make what they will of their
lives. will have to live with sorrow. and then
he makes use of the dissonance to create a powerful third theme that interweaves the “most triumphant notes” into its own “solemn pattern” (Tolkien
17).
The Children [of Ilúvatar] come with. Elves and Men will ﬁnd their lives complicated and profoundly affected by the Music. because they
do not bring it about as Adam and Eve do by their disobedience in chapter 3 of Genesis. Ilúvatar does not punish him. unless He allows
it. Nevertheless. emphasis Flieger’s]. the inhabitants of Middle-earth will have to live
with the marring Melkor brings about and decide what to do with it. changing
them and adding to them to counterbalance Melkor’s dissonance. for all their
directness of origin. make it dark and evil. and such a decision could possibly be seen as malicious.Dissonance in the Divine Theme ( Jensen)
be punished for creating discord. which accompanies their placement in the
world. but also Ilúvatar’s acceptance of it and decision to work with it. nor can any alter the music in my despite” (Tolkien 17). The only exception is
105
.
In itself. but then he
says to Melkor that “no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost
source in me. Tolkien’s “God” ﬁgure frankly admits that although Melkor
has exercised free will.
particularly since Ilúvatar fades into the background after the creation of
Arda and does not directly interfere with its affairs. In
this passage. Elves and
Men.
Because Ilúvatar chooses to work with Melkor’s dissonance. however. Dwarves and Hobbits. and for that matter. Instead. tragedy. They are not the cause of it. After Melkor — and certainly to some degree because of him — Elves
and Men will live in a world of immeasurable sorrow as part of a pattern that
can take the most triumphant of the discordant notes and weave them into the
whole [128. not (as might be expected) in the third
theme. Ilúvatar’s patience and his willingness to incorporate Melkor’s
dissonance into the Divine Theme seems oddly discomﬁting.
but patiently suffers through two themes in the divine music. Such a statement emphasizes the initial question raised in this paper:
Can there be malice in the Divine Theme? As Verlyn Flieger points out
in Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien’s World. the source of that free will comes from Ilúvatar himself.

and while he has
indeed allowed the discord. Dwarves. he does not necessarily allow it limitlessly. and later Hobbits in
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have the capacity to grow or regress. or
at least good can come from it. that the peoples can choose these
options. “Ilúvatar
would permit selﬁsh. but the world wouldn’t be what it becomes without it. and he changes the shape of the
world in the Akallabêth. to
make it interesting. rebellious Evil to exist but would always transmute
it so as to serve the ends of his divine Providence” (16).
and it is through dissonance.
why is the dissonance necessary.
Instead. and Ilúvatar sanctions his choice because Ilúvatar
(or Tolkien) wants to make free will part of his world. Flieger’s comments are based on pages
forty-one and forty-two of The Silmarillion in which Ilúvatar decides that
the hearts of Men “should seek beyond the Music of the Ainur. to grow.
Paul Kocher would argue that Ilúvatar’s actions are not malicious. because as Flieger
also points out. Yes. Tolkien quite possibly felt the same way. “Men can change the Music. So.
Free Will
The necessity of “free will” will be explored through a discussion of
two additional chapters from The Silmarillion: “Of Beren and Lúthien”
106
. in addition. as he points out in A Reader’s Guide to The Silmarillion.” which is like fate to the
Elves. Melkor is evil. Arda would
be beautiful and carefree. Humans. and as is shown through the various tales
he presents. He would eventually see that Melkor’s crimes
would be punished through the various battles he has with the Valar.” The dissonance of Melkor is an ingredient in Ilúvatar’s overall plan to allow
Humans. to ﬂesh it out. Life would be boring.
which is evidenced by the fact that the Creator abruptly ends the third
theme in wrath (Kocher 16). almost Eden-like. adversity. dissonance is not necessarily bad. But for humans. and arguably the other peoples of Middle-earth.Middle-earth Minstrel
when the Valar lay down their authority. but there would be no growth
and no reason to grow. and. If one looks at it from a
Neo-Platonic perspective. Elves. why does Ilúvatar sanction Melkor’s rebellion. Melkor is an individual who makes a choice. choice is even more important. is dissonance really such as bad thing?
To take the third question ﬁrst. and it is through the actions of men the world shall be “fulﬁlled”
or brought into “actuality” (129). and does evil things to mar the
world.

Lúthien is not a
weak character willing to wait for her lover to win her hand through heroic
deeds.5). who waylay her on her way to ﬁnd Beren. and by Sauron. He does not
want her to face the danger with him. the bane of the Lord of the Nazgêl. However. the Kolbítar (Coalbiters). to retrieve one of the Silmarils
from Morgoth’s crown. She lets her hair grow to make a ladder to escape the tree-house prison built by her father. never revolved around intellectual activity. gave up her role as a
“shield-maiden” to marry Faramir and become. she accepts the help
of the Valinorean hound. His relationship with his wife. She chooses to ﬁnd Beren and help him. and
he expected her to play the conventional role of wife and mother (Carpenter IV. Lúthien suffers separation from Beren.
but she knows that Beren will need her help. in the last two cases. himself. Tolkien has long been noted for his delight
in male companionship through the various societies he belonged to.
who is himself a ﬁne hero. Granted.6 and she has the
presence of mind to cast a part of her dark cloak over Sauron to blind him
so that Huan could get his fangs into Sauron. but it is her determination to save Beren that counts. and the Inklings. She could opt to stay put. and he attempts to leave her so that
107
. becomes an obstacle to Lúthien’s choice. Women also generally played very conventional roles in his
works: Éowyn. is the strongest character in a tale of
strong characters. Huan. perhaps most notably because it is the one tale in which
a female ﬁgure exercises it.
including the TCBS (Tea Club Barrovian Society).
At ﬁrst. She is an Elf who falls in love with the mortal Beren. who
attempts to hinder her rescue of Beren with many dark creatures. despite obstacles placed
before her by her father. Beren
loses his father and his group of men. and it is an important example of the value of free will for a number of reasons. one could easily assume that Lúthien is not that strong because
she remains silent at the beginning of her relationship with Beren.Dissonance in the Divine Theme ( Jensen)
and “Of Túrin Turambar. including himself as a werewolf (Tolkien 172–175). a conventional wife.” “Of Beren and Lúthien” is Tolkien’s great love
story. and only together can they
hope to retrieve the Silmaril from the Iron Crown. one assumes. Both suffer personal tragedies in this tale. on the other hand.
Lúthien. by Celegorm and
Curuﬁn.
Beren. When
he is given the task Thingol sets for him. who locks her in a tree-house. whom he
called his Lúthien. she says nothing as he says goodbye to her and
refuses to sing while he is gone (Tolkien 168).

and yet in some ways. he leaves her while
she sleeps. Lúthien. and
while to the Elves this would become a great grief. but he still does not
want Lúthien to accompany him. But she tells him that he has to choose between relinquishing the quest and facing Morgoth. But the victory is not without sorrow. in the form of a vampire bat. and although he reconciles with Thingol. has a choice
to make. he is moved to pity. Beren recognizes the wisdom of Huan’s advice.Middle-earth Minstrel
she will remain safe. too. if Beren leaves
Lúthien. for Lúthien uses musical
themes. who gives him permission to marry Lúthien. but the song is
so beautiful that he changes his own long-term frame of mind and speaks
on behalf of Beren and Lúthien to Manwë. when they catch up with Beren. and for the ﬁrst
and only time in Arda’s long history. They must either go into exile together seeking a vain peace
or face Morgoth. and. he is mortally wounded
in a ﬁnal battle he and the Elf-king lead against the wolf. Huan
informs him that he can no longer save Lúthien from “the shadow of death”
(Tolkien 179).
or at the very least accepts that Lúthien will not leave him. in the form of a wolf. and allows her
to accompany him on his journey. most sorrowful choice of all.
Beren’s choice is a good one. as Ilúvatar
weaves his theme with Melkor’s dissonance to make a triumphant world. she has a second chance
at happiness with the man she loves. and Beren.
108
. She chooses mortality. but. At this point. But Lúthien takes Huan with her and follows him. Finally.
Lúthien willingly dies and goes to the Halls of Mandos. she will still die because her love for Beren ties her to death
(Tolkien 179). There she sings
of her sorrow to the Keeper of the Houses of the Dead. At this point
comes the greatest. cuts
the gem from the crown. There are some griefs that she faces. He. a difﬁcult but not impossible task. “[but] on either road I shall go
with you. for it takes both him and Lúthien
together to steal the Silmaril from Morgoth. determined
to help and guide him.
The parallel is signiﬁcant. after Celegorm and Curuﬁn attempt
to waylay them again. sings Morgoth to sleep. Mandos is never moved to pity. and of course he opts for the second choice.
This event illustrates an interesting point. or to return to Middle-earth with Beren as a mortal and live a life
“without certitude of life or joy” (Tolkien 187). weaving them sorrowfully yet triumphantly together. Beren loses
his hand to Carcharoth the wolf. and he rescues her from capture. who grants Lúthien a last
choice: to be released from Mandos and dwell in Valimar until the world’s
end. and our doom shall be alike” (Tolkien 177).

None of these tragedies are entirely his fault.
not in your name” (Tolkien 211). fate does seem to conspire against him. so the other
Elves. tells a very different story. Túrin refuses because he considers himself an outlaw. ask Túrin to return to face the judgment of
Thingol.
his sister. Glaurung the
dragon. It is
not his fault that Saeros falls. her choice ultimately has a happy consequence for the future residents of Middle-earth. but Túrin does inspire the fear.
Saeros makes a snide remark about the women of Túrin’s tribe. son of Ill-fate)” (Tolkien
210). He has no hope. He cannot forgive himself for what he has done. fated to suffer. captured and punished by Morgoth for attacking him. however. Gwindor points this out when Túrin is
angered by the betrayal of his right name: “[t]he doom lies in yourself.
Túrin is one of the two children of Húrin.
Saeros falls into a chasm. and he creates some profound tragedies.
The greatest tragedy of this tale is his ill-fated marriage with Nienor. They will become the new King and Queen of the Golden Age
of Men. and his body is broken (Tolkien 199–200). including his responsibility in the deaths of Saeros and Beleg and his disastrous
decision to marry his sister.Dissonance in the Divine Theme ( Jensen)
the death of her father for one. for from her and her husband eventually spring Aragorn and Arwen. and it is this lack of hope which
forces him to make bad choices. particularly Mablung.
Túrin causes Beleg’s death when the latter tries to rescue Túrin from a
band of orcs. This statement strongly suggests that
Túrin creates his own doom because of his choices. In his terror.
The story of Túrin Turambar. the doom of Beren and Lúthien would have been quite different. whom he
109
. and Túrin
punishes the Elf by making him run naked in the forest. Without the freedom of choice.
strike ﬁrst and ask questions later (Tolkien 208). Glaurung ﬁrst places a spell on Túrin that makes him think of
himself as worthless and as a deserter to his mother and sister. and the ability to make good
choices. His attitude throughout the rest of his life is that he is a doomed
man. and Túrin
holds on to the grief from that event for the rest of his life. and Túrin is startled from sleep and follows the old adage. but still she leads a happier life with Beren
than without him. and his choices force him to live as an
exile even among friends. but the
king would have pardoned him had he sought mercy and forgiveness. In this case. who make the same choice as
Lúthien. In any case. but that fate
at least in part is brought about by a creature of Morgoth. He names himself at Nargothrond “Agarwaen
the son of Úmarth (which is the Bloodstained. Beleg dies.

he
ultimately ﬁnds out the truth. and he vows to return to war if they do not marry (Tolkien 220). Túrin. and the ability
110
. returns to his home. which
seems rash and unnecessary because Túrin kills him when he realizes that
he has been duped. and
while the life of this man ends in tragedy. She ultimately marries Túrin. wakes from a swoon. but she can’t be blamed because she wants to keep Túrin from
war. They
have left it to its inhabitants to decide what to do with it. not knowing who he is. and anguish. Túrin never
understands that humans make their own choices and can decide their own
fate. slays Brandir because he believes that Brandir is a liar and only
wants to ruin the relationship between Túrin and his wife. pain. and takes her to his new home
in Brethil. but by Glaurung and not by Brodda (Tolkien 215). Ultimately Glaurung. dissonance and all. and that lack of hope causes him to
make poor. removes
his spell from Nienor. and often rash.
Nienor.
in wrath. She makes a mistake here in not listening to her
misgivings. In his search
he has a series of adventures that bring him both renown and shame for
killing in pride and wrath.
Brodda clearly did nothing wrong towards Túrin. Túrin ﬁnds her. Much of his misfortune
could have been avoided if he had not trusted so much to fate. they are choices. choices. he is the one who ultimately
causes it. Ilúvatar and the Ainur
have created a world that will contain sorrow. in his dying throes. Through
the music of the Divine Theme. and kills himself for what he considers his
unlucky fate and his poor choices (Tolkien 225). most particularly the death of Brodda. and she realizes that she has committed incest and
then commits suicide without a second’s thought (Tolkien 223). and this feeling forces him to go ﬁnd them. but the murder
of Brodda is Túrin’s own fault. Nevertheless.
who slays the dragon. Of course.Middle-earth Minstrel
has never seen. One can blame Glaurung and other outside sources for leading
him astray. Up
to this point. is put under
a spell by Glaurung in which she forgets who she is and whom she is looking for. He has no hope of redemption.
What separates these two tales of free will is the idea of hope. Túrin. Glaurung is to blame
for lying to Túrin and tricking him into believing the lie. who wanders long distances searching for Túrin. but his ﬁnal decisions are his own. but it is still the choices that both Nienor and Túrin make that
lead to their downfall. Glaurung can truly be blamed for much of what has happened. and is
told by Brandir what Glaurung had said to Nienor (Tolkien 224). names her Níniel. despite
misgivings in her mind.

Without that hope. 2007. of course. providence. or meaning without conﬂict. so he often acts impulsively and never waits
to ﬁnd out if there is an alternative that could lead to a better life. the dissonance if you will.” explores the complex
relationships between fate. He sees himself as ill-starred to begin with. and Chance: Boethian Philosophy in The Lord of the Rings.
4. but he has at least
answered it for himself. such as Kathleen Dubs. If Lúthien had no hope
that Mandos might listen to her.
5. Theologically.
sin. have argued elsewhere about Boethian notions of free will in the works of Tolkien. “Still under the inﬂuence of
Manichaeanism. The interpretation of Ilúvatar as the ultimate force for good is a personal one. A perfect world
offers no challenge. but he lacks hope.
2. He thought that the Catholic teaching required one to picture God as
limited on all sides by the shape of the human body of Christ. It is often the bumps. no growth. and so the author has
included it in reference to Augustine’s argument.
and the paths of the two lovers would have been sundered forever. Tolkien still hasn’t really solved the problem of evil.
Fate. they would not have worked so
hard to achieve the quest and to ultimately succeed. Augustine pictured God as limited only on one side.7 Túrin
Turambar had the same choices to make. This question. Beren and Lúthien had the
hope that they would be able to take the Silmaril from Morgoth’s crown
to live a life together. As Vernon Bourke explains in his translation notes. and free will for the confused or the skeptical. as outlined in “Providence. begs a relativistic argument that God can be judged in
human terms. but it is nevertheless a question that is often asked. Tolkien the storyteller
cannot have a story of depth. but it is a world that offers challenge. but it would be
boring.
Notes
1. the reference raised such an
interesting debate at the conference that the author decided to include it in the ﬁnal version of this essay. The Manichaeans regarded the Incarnation as anthropomorphism” (121). So Melkor’s dissonance in the making of Arda may have made for an imperfect
world. and chance and their relationships with free will
and choice as they relate to Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy and The Lord of the Rings
111
. for
Tolkien himself never refers to Ilúvatar as good. by the opposing
Principle of Evil. conﬂict.
3. of life’s happenings and the choices we make that help us to grow the most. We could have a perfect world. power.Dissonance in the Divine Theme ( Jensen)
to hope is an important part of that decision. However. In similar fashion. This chapter was ﬁrst presented at the “Music and Language in Tolkien” session
of the 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies on May 11. she would not have tried to save Beren. Some scholars.
Choice is necessary. Dubs’ argument. and the possibility
of joy.

tears at Thisbe’s veil. 2004. New York: Macmillan.
Chadwick. Augustine. Ed.wikipedia. The reference to Lúthien’s long hair is similar to the tale of Rapunzel by
the Brothers Grimm.
and he had no hope that he might ﬁnd love again with another.
112
. so they spoke with each other secretly through chinks in the wall separating the family properties. Ed.
Works Cited
Bourke.
“Dissonance. Washington.
“Consonance and Dissonance. When Pyramus later arrives.
and perhaps the lack of hope that he will have his wish come true. In the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Boston: Houghton Mifﬂin. Tolkien often borrowed stories from fairy tales and mythology and wove them
into his work.
7. and grant
his wish. and Thisbe ﬂees. While
Thisbe waits for Pyramus. but is too large for the scope of this essay. 29 April 2007. 1 –16.” both of which Ovid recounted in his
Metamorphoses. They decide to meet secretly and run away together. Saint Augustine: The Confessions. Although Ovid does not indicate it. the King and Queen of the Underworld
to let her live again.. and this lack of trust. The Fathers of the Church Series. he sees the bloody veil.Middle-earth Minstrel
(Chance 8). assumes that Thisbe is
dead. Orpheus fails in this task and Eurydice returns to the Underworld
forever (Ovid 225–228). Volume VII: Dan tranh
to Eques. and of course.
Carpenter. hope is also what separates Beren and Lúthien from two classical
tales that may have partly inﬂuenced Tolkien in the writing of his great love story: “Pyramus and Thisbe” and “Orpheus and Eurydice. 2001. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. DC: Catholic University of America Press. inconsolable. which operates as part of this providential
order” (Dubs 141). other versions of the myth
imply that Orpheus does not entirely trust Pluto and Proserpina. of which we
are unaware. Jane Chance. but leave him with the admonition that he must not look at her until they return to the surface. Pluto and Proserpina are moved to pity. Jane. Such an argument is interesting and would be worth pursuing in an
analysis of The Silmarillion. New York: Columbia
University Press. Thisbe shows up and kills herself after
seeing his corpse.org/wiki/
Consonance_and_dissonance. Humphrey. and kills himself (Ovid 76–79). The lioness. She ultimately argues that the seeming contradictions that arise among these
concepts can be resolved “by following Boethius in distinguishing providence. which has been left behind. Tolkien: A Biography. 2nd ed. who has
just been hunting. Pyramus and Thisbe were two lovers forbidden to see each other by
their parents. Much like Mandos.” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. fate. chance. trans.
Deane. The Confessions of Saint Augustine. 380. with her bloody
mouth. 1963.” Wikipedia. trans. which
orders the universe. Herbert A. Orpheus. freedom of will. Stanley Sadie. a lioness arrives. the temporal manifestation of that order. Pyramus had no hope that Thisbe might be alive.
Chance. The Political and Social Ideas of St. ultimately causes his
quest to fail. Interestingly. http://en. 1953. 1991. Henry. “Introduction: A ‘Mythology for England?’” In Tolkien and the Invention
of Myth. Oxford: Oxford University
Press. and he loses Eurydice a second time. follows her with the hope that his beautiful singing might sway Pluto and Proserpina. Vernon J. 1977.
6.
which of course took away Thisbe’s hope as well. so he killed himself. Eurydice dies of a snake bite and
goes to the underworld.

Obviously. shift from seeing
themselves as participants in an historical event to being historical ﬁgures
in their own right. The songs and stories of Middle-earth. songs free their
subjects from the restraints of time. they see the songs that will be made of their
deeds as the means by which their memories will be transmitted to future
generations. One of the earliest and most
instinctive ways of commemorating the dead is simply by telling stories
about them.
and thus locate immortality within culture itself. Many of the earliest texts of Western literature. the
peoples of Middle-earth have been primarily backward-looking. The characters.
Of course. but the repercussions of these changes extend
well beyond sociopolitical connotations. But when Frodo’s task
is completed. Increasingly. however. Mortality and Music
Amy M. Amendt-Raduege
The moment Gollum and the Ring fall into the ﬁres of Orodruin
marks a profound change in the tone of The Lord of the Rings.
there has been remarkably little on the symbolic immortality achieved in
song. and future. especially Sam. the emphasis shifts. remembering the great exploits of heroes past and lamenting what has been lost
or must be sacriﬁced in the long war against Sauron. Because they link past. beginning with
114
. No longer are the songs and stories
focused on preventing further decay.1 Although much has been said
regarding the physical immortality of some of the races of Middle-earth. but on preserving memories of the
present for the future. Until the Ring is destroyed.“Worthy of a Song”:
Memory.
the Ring’s destruction signals the end of Sauron’s reign and heralds the
dawn of the Age of Men. promote immortality in a different form: they serve as foci for communal commemoration. such an idea is nothing new. and thus become another vehicle for
the discussion of what Tolkien himself described as the real theme of The
Lord of the Rings: death and immortality. present.

the question of the afterlife became increasingly important. and tell my tale. especially in pre-literate cultures. according to their
own testimony. always living. and eras of human history that have otherwise faded into
oblivion. their ultimate fate in the afterlife was uncertain.3 In Widsith. and then later through writing. For
centuries.
“literature is culture’s memory. Would God welcome even pagan
heroes into Heaven? If not.
therefore. the poet makes
this function clear:
Foròon ic mæg singan
ond secgan spell. Because
the heroes commemorated in these stories were pre–Christian. But songs and stories of the past. then surely the best hope of immortality for
their pagan ancestors was to ensure that their deeds would be remembered — a sentiment made clear by Beowulf himself:
“Ure æghwylc sceal
ende gebidan
worolde lifes. recording the memory of departed heroes.
mænan fore mengo
in meoduhealle
hu me cynegode
cystum dohten. Thus.
Almost all warrior societies put emphasis on the value of deeds and
honor. history was transmitted not through written records — though
written records and oral histories often functioned in parallel — but through
songs and stories.
Wyrce se òe mote
115
.” keeping the histories of heroes and of peoples of the past alive. always available. the poet’s function is not only to tell clever stories or repeat
old tales: he also determines whose stories will be told. transmitting the deeds
of ancient heroes ﬁrst in oral form.”2 Some scholars have even argued that
all literature is commemorative. served as “the custodians of folk-memory. keep the dead always present. but in the post-conversion recording of Germanic stories in particular. represent this ancient belief. spread throughout Europe by scops and bards who kept
the memories of the past alive.”]
Clearly. not as a simple recording device but as a
body of commemorative actions. for warriors to accomplish something signiﬁcant enough to be
worthy of a song: it was their best hope for immortality.4
[“Therefore I will sing.
lost cultures. It was necessary. sing before
the company in the meadhall how noble men honored
me with their gifts.“Worthy of a Song” (Amendt-Raduege)
the Epic of Gilgamesh. The poets of the past.

an elegy is deﬁned in relation to the past.
lof became associated with the ideas of heaven and the celestial choirs. as Tolkien
thought the Beowulf-poet did. so
that the deeds of their ancestors need not be completely forgotten. Typically.”]
The monks and scribes of medieval England.
The same sentiment appears throughout the Anglo-Saxon corpus as
we now have it. But as Tolkien pointed out. must have understood that speaking and writing the stories down preserved them.
especially the Exeter Book elegies: The Wanderer. especially an afterlife determined
by what glories can be achieved in this life. Much of the old heroic tradition was already fading by the time
of the Beowulf-poet. the raw courage with which
the heroes of old faced their deaths was worthy of commemoration.Middle-earth Minstrel
domes ær deaòe.
that is best for a man after he is dead.
and Deor. and
if the poets could not assure such heroes their place in heaven. but frequently appears in other poems. as Tolkien himself pointed out.”7 quite often with the tacit anticipation of an equally unhappy
future. The necessity of lof and dom
is particularly prevalent in Beowulf. a song or
poem which is marked by “a contemplation of a satisfying and favourable
past now lost to a speaker who is exiled or dislocated within an unhappy
present. he who may might achieve glory before death. If nothing else. They
carried on the work of the scops and bards before them. 1386–1389]. allowing the memories of past generations to be transmitted to the future.
òæt bis drihtguman
unlifgendum
æfter selest” [Beowulf ll. albeit in a different form. especially over judgments of the
dead6 (as in our modern word “doomsday”). The narrators of the poems themselves often speak of
winning lof and dom (commonly translated as “fame” and “glory”) as necessary for ensuring some form of immortality. they could
at least assure them of their place in history. Widsith. The anonymous poets of the Anglo-Saxon corpus seem to have felt.5 replaced by other
forms of storytelling and other preferred genres of writing. with the transience of life and the inevitability of death. The elegies are also concerned with mortality itself. The Seafarer. that their heathen ancestors were not automatically worthy of perdition.
[“Each one of us must live to see the end of life of the
world. then.
while dom ﬂowed into ideas of judgment. Both lof and dom thus carry
within them overtones of the afterlife. and the hope that one’s own
116
.

repeats the same sentiment found in Beowulf. becoming one of the
earliest English authors to ensure his own immortality by signing his work. as Paul Binski suggests. when life was fresh and the strength of youth still made
unlikely events seem possible. he then proceeds
to hedge his bets by spelling out his name in runes.
and says so directly in The Fates of the Apostles:
Her mæg ﬁndan
se se hine lystes
hwa òas ﬁtte fegde
foreòances gleaw. As the heirs of this great tradition.9 Certainly the Anglo-Saxons seem to have made no such distinction.
[“here the one wise in thought.
So it is that remembering the names and deeds of those who died
remains important. that
Foròon bis eorla gehwam
æftercweòendra
lof lifgendra
lastworda betst [ll.”]
The famous poet Cynewulf was even more direct. and music and poetry did not become separate entities until
the advent of sixteenth-century print culture. Nowadays.“Worthy of a Song” (Amendt-Raduege)
life might be esteemed by future generations. we still “sing
the praises” of people we admire. He knew quite well
that writing such poems could ensure his name would be remembered. but this distinction is a modern one: songs are but poems
set to music. is the best memorial. may discover who wrote this song”]
Just to be sure future readers of his poem get the point. If “memory
was the sign of a good name” in the Middle Ages.8
it is scarcely less so today. The Seafarer.
leosgiddunga. for instance.
[“Therefore for every man praise from those who speak of
him afterwards. from the living.” We even long for the “glory
days” of youth. words such as leos and ﬁt—
which appeared in the verses given earlier — can be translated as “song”
and “story.” It is a commonplace among singers that all songs tell a story. the one who enjoys the
recitation of poems.
and a commonplace of storytelling to underscore important parts of the
story with music — a technique used by Anglo-Saxons scops and modern
117
. the terms “song” and “story”
have bifurcated. or lament the sacriﬁce of the “unsung
heroes” who fell nameless in battle. 72–3]. And we still speak of being “immortalized in song” or “famed in song and story. to us as to the Anglo-Saxons before us.

of
which The Lord of the Rings itself is only a part. Tolkien is always careful to remind us that we are. The songs thus provide access to a communal memory of a heroic but vanished past.
they do not achieve heroic stature unless they sacriﬁce themselves for some
purpose which readers can recognize as signiﬁcant and worthy. even though the Elves are meant to be immortal within the conﬁnes
of the world. But their longevity is the very cause of their grief: since they
are not meant to die.”11 Fortu-
118
. one must ﬁrst
accomplish something commendable. Mortals recognize that death is a natural if unwelcome consequence of life. Hobbits sing
of home and comfort. everyone. tell us something signiﬁcant about its themes. can understand what it’s
like to lose someone. preserve and transmit it are depicted as the threads that stitch together the
fabric of society. and their subjects
cross all barriers of culture. even if we cannot hear the music. are but echoes of the vast history of Middle-earth. the glories of Khazad-dûm in Durin’s Day from a Dwarf and the
accomplishments of Beren and Lúthien from a Man. representing the various kindreds of Middle-earth. Dwarves sing of treasure and mighty cities under
mountains. A signiﬁcant
number of the elegies we hear in The Lord of the Rings are Elvish in origin. These songs.
But if one’s name is going to be remembered in song. In The Lord of the
Rings. Elves do
not. Death and loss thus form an unlikely link between the various peoples of Middle-earth. connecting all the seemingly disparate events into a coherent whole: all stories. and Elves. So we hear of the fall of
the Elven king Gil-galad from a hobbit and the loss of Nimrodel from an
Elf. then. and
the songs they sing reveal vital elements about their cultures. and even time itself. reading
a song. “glory” and “fame” repeatedly appear in association with song and
story. For “no matter how bravely men die. race. intriguingly. Each of the races of Middle-earth sing songs. and one employed by Tolkien as well. Although we as readers ﬁrst encounter the songs of Middle-earth as
poetry. and the excerpts we hear amplify this
theme. Just as in Beowulf.Middle-earth Minstrel
movie-makers. thus serve the trifold purpose of commemoration. even the Elves. consolation and communion. sing of loss and memory. when death actually does occur.
The songs and stories of Middle-earth. every story.”10 the songs of Middle-earth hold its story together. where “dom and the stories that bestow. the anguish and
agony of those left behind is both heightened and prolonged. in fact. both about what is remembered and what is
worth remembering.

sung when the diminished company of
Aragorn. In fact. call warriors to
action. inspire courage. Like the narrators of the elegies.
Aragorn describes them as a culture that preserves its culture entirely in
songs.
and viewing all heroic deeds as being behind them. 92–93]. Much of their journey recalls the attitude of the
narrator of The Wanderer or The Seafarer: looking back on brighter days.
comfort and fellowship. They have at the outset no real conception that their
undertaking might win them lasting fame. Perhaps this is not surprising. which are often sung. For Frodo and Sam. but
with those of poetry. the hobbits see as bare necessity — to do what they must.
perhaps.
That will come later. and mourn the fallen — all roles also
fulﬁlled by surviving Anglo-Saxon texts. no ideas of winning lof or dom.
memories of home and comfort and fellowship lie more or less literally
behind them: their backs are to Gondor and Rohan. the Riders of Rohan bear a strong
resemblance to Anglo-Saxon culture. What the others see as a noble undertaking. the intense
connection between the culture of the Rohirrim and their songs is accented. pose riddles. increasingly cut off by bitter circumstance from home. famously parallels strophe 92 from The Wanderer:
Hwær cwom mearg? Hwær cwom mago? Hwær cwom maòòumgyfa?
Hwær cwom symbla gesetu? Hwær sindon seledreamas? [ll.“Worthy of a Song” (Amendt-Raduege)
nately. Gimli and Gandalf approaches Edoras. because
no one else is able.13 Songs serve a vital role
in the culture of Rohan: they transmit cultural memory. the hobbits themselves. or legend. although as Tom Shippey notes the
Rohirrim “are not to be equated with the Anglo-Saxons of history. Everyone knows that the hobbits’ quest is heroic — except. the opening stanzas of
the Lament of the Rohirrim. Legolas. whatever other obstacles Frodo and Sam must overcome. they see themselves
primarily as exiles.”12 Even before we meet them. that is
not one of them. recalling
the glories of warrior-life now long past:
119
.
And it is in Rohan that the ideals of the heroic elegy are most clearly
expressed. but never written.
[Where has gone the horse? Where has gone the warrior? Where has
gone the giver of treasures?
Where has gone the banquet-place? Where have gone the joys of the
hall?]
The “Lament for the Rohirrim” begins much the same way.

The poet of Rohan who composed these lines. and winds up with not one song. knowledge
passes also. but with wonder and with sorrow. however. and the red ﬁre glowing?14
This song is a clear indication of the oral tradition whereby the
Rohirrim transmit their history. apparently have no such tradition. talking trees. Pippin tells Denethor that hobbits rarely
sing of anything more terrible than foul weather. his deeds
will be signiﬁcant enough to be cast into verse.
long after the battle. the great hero of ancient Rohan and the founder of their royal
house. no elegies. the memory of Eorl is
alive and well: men still sing of him in the evening. are about things that make them laugh. Théoden in particular recognizes the importance of song to his people. During the Battle of Helm’s
Deep.
Tolkien does not mention them.
who gives voice to the realization that when the songs fade. or “make such an end as will be worth a song. Eorl has achieved “that immortality which belongs to elegy. relegated to the nursery instead of regarded as necessary. and they quite
clearly recognize songs as an appropriate means of sharing and preserving
communal memory. for instance. but because of his song.
Perhaps because he is an old man and close to death. When he hears of the Ents. adventure songs and bath-songs. listing fourteen of the most notable dead by name.”18
Théoden does not die in that battle. It is he. perhaps.19
120
. but
three. he asks Aragorn to ride with him against the Orcs. the Lament commemorates Eorl the
Young. he
says. The hobbits. but if they sing funeral songs or histories. But he also voices the hope that.”16 Not for nothing is it a poet of Rohan who.15 Like Beren and
Lúthien. or about food and drink. He realizes at once that there are
songs that tell of such marvels as walking. most of their songs. unlike Cynewulf. of course. then.Middle-earth Minstrel
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk. Gil-galad or Durin. singing is a serious business. composes the elegy which mourns the fallen of Pelennor Fields.17 He
grieves that things he thought existed only in song might soon be extinguished except in song. and the bright hair ﬂowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring.
For the Rohirrim. saying that they
will either cleave a path. but goes on to lead his
people to their victory in Gondor. We are told of walking-songs and supper-songs. Nimrodel. he reacts not with scorn or disbelief.
has long been forgotten. but they are slowly
being lost.

20
Once Sam has given voice to this idea. then the absence of
such songs implies another kind of death. From that
point forward. but destined. not just of freedom or civilization. that avenue too will be cut off. “The history of a people is found in its songs.
But if Sauron wins. even when death itself is all but certain. there will be no more songs. the lover of songs and tales. if they ever
heard the tale. he repeatedly notes parts of their journey that might be
dubbed worthy of a song. who ﬁrst makes
the connection between song and memory. at the end of it all. It consigns the
great heroes of the past to oblivion. There
will be no more songs. methodical way. Sam
realizes that what he and Frodo are doing is signiﬁcant enough in itself to
be worthy of a song.”22 And he consoles himself.
Not surprisingly. and the great accomplishments of the
present to insigniﬁcance. Communal memory will be destroyed.23
If. it stays with him. but of even the memory of freedom and civilization. with the wish that perhaps future generations will
listen to the tale of Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom. For whatever one’s personal beliefs might be. a death more horrible even than
physical death. even
(or perhaps especially) in the face of overwhelming odds. though he dubs the escape
from the Tower “too long to make a song about. as George Jellinek said.“Worthy of a Song” (Amendt-Raduege)
So it takes them quite some time to start thinking of the events of their
own times as being worthy of a song. even when the
end is in doubt. one’s memory will be sustained. Sam’s comment is that the Elves would make a song of it. too. it is Sam. and even longer before they begin
to express the hope that their own actions might be deemed worthy of
remembrance.
Sauron’s victory means utter abnegation.
121
. Especially if the purpose of such songs is to convey a kind of immortality.
But Sam also realizes that. no more remembering: it will be as if history itself
had never been. What wins a hero lof or dom is perseverance. In his slow.”
Sauron’s victory represents an annihilation more thorough than mortality
itself. because it destroys all hope of a continued existence. there is a kind of comfort in the notion that. So when Frodo defeats Shelob.21 He likewise wonders if the Elves might make a song of his
battle with the Orcs just outside Cirith Ungol. And ﬁnally.
he ﬁrst realizes that the adventures of the tales that really matter are not
sought. and consoles himself with the thought that they. at the very least. albeit temporarily.
might be remembered. if Sauron wins.

the story is suffused
with joy. songs of rejoicing ﬁll the air. the
Elves. The text becomes a kind of inverted elegy: no longer
lamenting the losses of the past. and so keep alive
the memory of the past so that the hobbits might love their beloved home
all the more. the momentous events of the Third Age
are carefully recorded. in
addition to the minstrel’s song. the city itself is
made even more beautiful than it has ever been.24 and Ioreth gossips that Gandalf promised her that men would
long remember her words. untarnished.
reminding his former gardener to read the Red Book. can no longer ﬁnd peace or comfort on Middle-earth. The last thing Frodo says to Sam is both prophetic and prescriptive. But an inverted elegy is still an elegy. to live on in days yet to come. but it also signals the end of the Elves’ time in Middle-earth. Faramir tells Éowyn that she has won fame that will not be
forgotten. The glory of the present is captured in song.
For a time. word and stone. The Ents. including the songs. Éomer becomes King of
the Mark in the shadow of Théoden’s death. because their part in the song is over. the time will come when the music
will falter and the tales will fall silent. but concerned with preserving the record
of present events for future generations. so lovely that even after
the end of the Third Age “it preserved the memory and the glory of the
years that were gone”26 (emphasis mine).Middle-earth Minstrel
So it is natural that. they take every
precaution to ensure that some part of their legacy will remain. farther into the
future. and Frodo himself.
More poignantly still. a new age has begun. the peoples of Middle-earth
commit themselves to ensuring that the accomplishments of their times
will not be forgotten. from the moment Frodo wakes up in Ithilien. In the fulﬁllment of Sam’s wish. having
suffered so greatly. hoping against hope
that writing them down will preserve them. marks
the reuniﬁcation of the two branches of Eärendil’s house. with Sauron’s defeat. he and the
122
. and the thought of all that has gone by falls away. And then. Against that time. he and Frodo actually hear
a minstrel sing “Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom. ﬁlled with the sense
that lif is læne and all things in this world must past away. For a time. It is not without purpose that Frodo and Bilbo set
their memories. down in a book. Thus. Aragorn’s marriage to Arwen. for instance. The music
of mortality and transient glory gives way to the music of mirth and abiding hope.” Back in
Minas Tirith. the characters all recognize that no matter how great
or signiﬁcant their actions might be.25 And during Aragorn’s reign. and the Dwarves all know that their time on Middle-earth is ending.

Christopher Tolkien. 124.
3.“Worthy of a Song” (Amendt-Raduege)
Elves and Gandalf depart forever over the Sea. and we know that they did keep alive the memory of the events
that ended the Third Age. It is even possible.html. 4 June 2009.” European
Review 12 (2004): 165–178. 89. “God. ed. 51. William Nash. The Monsters and the Critics. History.” The Monsters & The
Critics and Other Essays. p.
12. Tolkien.” Readings in
Medieval Texts: Interpreting Old and Middle English Literature. NY: Cornell University Press. p.R. Tolkien. p. Death and Loyalty in the Battle of Maldon. 450. p.
2. until Tolkien
“discovered” them ages later. and Pippin return to
the Shire.”27
But the story does not end there. 9–26. “Introduction: The Roots of Medieval Death Culture. the memory of Frodo’s adventures stays with
us long after we have set the physical text aside. we ourselves keep alive the history and memory of these
times that never were alive — as long as our part of the story goes on.
4. 22. Roy M. “The Poetry Business. “Music. p.R. (Ithaca. “For the Third Age was
over. The Road to Middle-earth: How J. p.R. 95.
9. p. (New York: HarperCollins. and the Rhetoric of Memory in Guillaume de
Mauchat’s Enders Remedie de Fortune.R.R. “Nostalgic Evocation and Social Privilege in the Old
English Elegies. telling the tales and singing the songs.
6. J. Tolkien. NY: Cornell University Press. Robinson.R.
123
. to hear the music of Middle-earth. from . Delivery. Mary Salu and Robert T. 2006).R. The story was also preserved in the Red Book
of Westmarch.
Notes
1.
5. Melanie Heyworth.” Medieval
Death: Ritual and Representation. Through
song and story. Liuzza.R. 22 April 2006. Georgetown University. wherein the old songs were so carefully set. Memory. 2005). Fred C. 1988).
7.
8. “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics. Ed. 246. Rev. Jody Enders. 3. David Johnson and
Elaine Treharne (Oxford: Oxford University Press. “Widsith. Renate Lachmann. Tolkien Created a New
Mytholog y. And for the millions of us who have read and
loved The Lord of the Rings. and passing them on to their children. Ed. “Beowulf: Monuments. Merry.” PMLA 107. J.
10. 1979). p. Tom Shippey. and the Days of the Rings were passed. and an end was come of the
story and song of those times. 37.R.3 Special Topic: Performance (May
1992).” A Departed Music: Old English Poetry
(Norfolk. Scholar and Storyteller: Essays in Memoriam. byrinth/library/oe/texts/a3.” Studia Neophilologica 76 (2004): 3–11. The Letters of J. 2003). through
Donald Swann’s collection.11. “Cultural Memory and the Role of Literature.R. Farrell
(Ithaca. 2000). Humphrey Carter (Boston:
Houghton Mifﬂin.” The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies. Paul Binski.” J.
11. England: Anglo-Saxon. Sam. 1996). and expanded edition (Boston: Houghton Mifﬂin. Ed.
Tolkien. p.

by exciting their imaginations and stirring their spirits.“Tolkien Is the Wind and the Way”:
The Educational Value of
Tolkien-Inspired World Music
Amy H. vehement
power metal anthems.” he
wrote. and sketched. Sturgis
If musicians across the world have entered Middle-earth and made
themselves comfortable in its landscape. Tolkien described
the dream that he once had cherished for his Middle-earth literature as a
loosely-connected cycle of storytelling. Although Tolkien later abandoned as ludicrous the dream of others
joining him in such participatory storytelling. we can hardly blame him. and leave many only placed in scheme. wielding paint and music and drama” (Tolkien Letters). exemplifying what was highest and
noblest — perhaps even most sacred — in human nature via their personal
acts of creativity. this is because creator J.
among others. and deﬁant rap music. “I would draw some of the great
tales in fullness.
Tolkien. Such an invitation was not altogether unintentional. complex progressive rock epics. Those parts that he created would support the greater vision as a
whole. invited
them into his world. If Tolkien did not anticipate that such sub-creations
would eventually take the forms of folksy country/western tunes. he explained. “sub-creators” in their own right.R. to use his terminology in his 1947 essay “On Fairy-Stories.R. “and yet leave scope for other minds and hands.
126
.
Musicians ranked equally with painters and dramatists were among
those he hoped would join him in ﬂeshing out and populating Middleearth. well. we can see from our later
vantage point that it was inevitable that others would be moved by Tolkien’s
ﬁction to become.
In a letter to Milton Waldman probably written in 1951.

Tolkien in History. We even have an idea of how Tolkien imagined some
of these songs to sound.
Yet Tolkien’s word on the subject of music is but the ﬁrst step in a
longer journey involving art. endorsed by Tolkien. The author does not pretend to be a music scholar.
he assigned to songs the work of key exposition (Aragorn’s tale of Beren
and Lúthien. and cultures. and Bilbo’s story of Eärendil. and the somber liturgical sound assigned to the Elves in Donald
Swann’s “Namárië. even heavenly. mysterious. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. in the rustic tune Tolkien
provides for “Sam’s Rhyme of the Troll. In The Lord of the Rings. Just as
one reads scholarship by Tolkien authorities to provide new analytical
windows through which to view The Hobbit. interpretation.R. styles.“Tolkien Is the Wind and the Way” (Sturgis)
Tolkien himself.” ﬁt for any working-class pub singalong.R. His
Middle-earth works are full of descriptions of music and verses reﬂecting
various languages. informal. and popular culture.
The immensely thorough Tolkien Music List website (www. symbolic acts
(such as Treebeard’s incorporation of Hobbits into the Ent taxonomy). and “Bilbo’s Last Song.” developed and taught at Belmont University. and
turning-points in the plotline (Sam’s singing in Cirith Ungol and Frodo’s
reply. Fruitful discussions about the nature of
Hobbits and Middle-earth’s Firstborn inevitably follow from juxtaposing
the two songs. certainly appreciated the
importance of music in building a three-dimensional ﬁctional world. and Donald Swann’s 1967 composition The Road
Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle. but the goal
is not to judge the songs on their individual merits as art.
the author uses Tolkien’s 1952 recordings and Donald Swan’s sanctioned
compositions to help students analyze Tolkien’s understanding of his creations. for instance.” so
the author and her students listened to selections from the immense and
diverse body of Tolkien-inspired world music for fresh insights into Middle-earth. though not a musician. such as the “Gregorian chant” model for Galadriel’s “Namárië. and Literature. for example). for example). but instead to
utilize the different lenses they offer to see Tolkien’s writings in new ways. The
Silmarillion. Political Thought. A stark contrast is evident.” One is humble.”
In an upper-division college course “J. incorporates what Swann
learned of the author’s personal musical inspirations. and cheerful. for instance. the other
aloof.tolkien-
127
. The Lord of the Rings. he sang a few of them a capella in his 1952 taped
recording (now available from Caedmon) of selections from The Hobbit
and The Lord of the Rings.

it offers an opportunity to
talk about the publication history of how The Lord of the Rings followed
128
. but it also serves to assist. childlike humor underscored by the tune communicates a carefree security and easy affection that often surprises students.Middle-earth Minstrel
music. the
author focused on two particular kinds of music in her course: adaptations. from their themes and intended audiences. Of these. and challenge experiences of his texts. folk-inspired style by singer-songwriter Glenn Yarbrough. moreover.
If students have been exposed to Tolkien-related music before the
class. Ha! Ha!” is perhaps the most
interesting from a pedagogical perspective. from Johan de Meij’s The Lord of the Rings:
Symphonie No. and what one
could term “sub-sub-creations.com) has proven to be an invaluable resource for exploring Tolkieninspired world music. laughing verses present a very different interpretation of
the Rivendell Elves than. 1 to David Arkenstone’s Music Inspired by Middle-earth. or songs that employ Tolkien’s original verses as lyrics. aloof. Here
the survey begins. The ﬁrst music composed for a successful adaptation of
Tolkien’s writing appeared in the original soundtrack to the Rankin/Bass
animated ﬁlm The Hobbit in 1977. Such music not only reﬂects the importance of the
ﬁrst sub-creator and minstrel himself. it is likely that this exposure can be credited to one of the dramatizations of Tolkien’s work. and digniﬁed. The playful.
who expect Elves to be grave.” or songs that feature original lyrics based
on Tolkien’s characters and themes. “In the Valley. the
happy-go-lucky. The fact that these songs include lyrics
that can be read and studied both while and after listening to the music
makes them especially amenable to class discussions. Students’ expectations
are often founded not on The Hobbit. apart from the random Led Zeppelin song. for example. Ted Nasmith’s art or Peter Jackson’s
ﬁlms. but on The Lord of the Rings: this
song provides a springboard for discussion of the differences between The
Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. to their narrative structures. and thus it is ideal for use in
the classroom. illuminate. Performed in a deliberately
upbeat. Many of the songs include Tolkien’s
original verses.
Adaptations
While Tolkien’s Middle-earth has inspired a number of compelling
instrumental compositions.

com).
The 1981 BBC Radio Drama of The Lord of the Rings yielded excellent music composed and conducted by Stephen Oliver. captures the mix of resignation and hope Bilbo feels while
leaving Middle-earth for the Undying Lands. made more ethereal by the voice of Jeremy Vine. however. as the poem
was published separately from Tolkien’s other Middle-earth works.
129
. The most exceptional of these is “Bilbo’s Last Song. Questioning why Shore chose
this song in general.howardshore.“Tolkien Is the Wind and the Way” (Sturgis)
from The Hobbit. The words seem happy
enough. His conviction that he will
ﬁnd longed-for peace and respite highlights both the reward he will receive
for his heroic act of relinquishing the Ring willingly. by implication. In Tolkien’s novel. the nature of sacriﬁce and healing depicted in The Lord
of the Rings. partnered with the funereal tune. to pair with his
images leads students to consider a number of issues related to cinematic
storytelling versus print narrative. Tolkien’s presentation of mortality and
immortality. and only certain verses in particular. This song inspires talk
about the characteristics of Bilbo as a hero (in both The Hobbit and The
Lord of the Rings). and the meaning of the Grey Havens and the Undying
Lands — and. The
haunting song.” which is particularly signiﬁcant
because most students have not been exposed to its verses. and Pippin Took sing an innocent walking
song as they make their way from Hobbiton. invite a
question certain to stir discussion: Does Tolkien’s conclusion to The Lord
of the Rings provide readers with a “happy ending?”
Howard Shore’s 2003 score for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings:
The Return of the King ﬁlm uproots and reinterprets one of Tolkien’s verses
from the original The Fellowship of the Ring book to create the song “The
Steward of Gondor” (www. where
Pippin (portrayed by Billy Boyd) sings it at Denethor’s command. Frodo
Baggins. Samwise Gamgee. while
the camera contrasts the Hobbit’s gentle voice and horriﬁed expression
with scenes of Denethor’s violent attack of his meal and Faramir’s nearsuicidal charge against the enemy. The wistful lyrics. the young
treble singer. while comparing the very different
worlds of The Shire and Gondor and what they represented both to Tolkien
and to Jackson. and what changes Tolkien made in later editions of The
Hobbit so it would better ﬁt with its “sequel” books. and the price he already
has paid for being a Ringbearer for so many years. Howard Shore transplants the song to Gondor. Students are likely to be familiar with
the visual context of this song in the ﬁlm.

How would
Rivendell. by contrast with Stark. Many more exist than can
be discussed here. Canadian music scholar James A. as one student noted. Once again. Playing excerpts from the various classical pieces provides an excellent opportunity to analyze the different peoples and places of Middle-earth. also
prove useful in teaching about Middle-earth. unrelated to dramatizations. Translation: Galadriel’s Song of Eldamar”
additionally opens the door for dialogue about Tolkien’s invented languages.wxs. The Hobbitons even include sound effects in some of their
songs.
their role in his creation of Middle-earth. the addition of loathsome dripping. bubbling.nl/~hobbiton). based on the evidence he provides in his texts. Stark released his album
Songs of Middle-Earth.” Presented via tenor and harp. and their relevance to the themes
of his story. where lore
is communicated in the most artistic and polished — and Elvish — of ways. and gurgling effectively illustrates the action as the listener encounters the repugnant and deadly creatures in their dank lair. a four-CD set interpreting all of Tolkien’s unabridged verses from The Fellowship of the Ring
through The Return of the King. or Treebeard with a bass and Legolas with a tenor? How do such
musical “characterizations” ﬁt and amplify Tolkien’s descriptions? Contrasting the sound of the original Elvish version of “Song of the Elves Beyond
the Sea: Galadiel’s Song of Eldamar” with the sound of the English “Song
of the Elves Beyond the Sea.Middle-earth Minstrel
Other adaptations of Tolkien’s verses. released several single albums before collaborating with special guest Christopher Lee to release their 2006 collection
The Lord of the Rings: Complete Songs and Poems.
In 1989. or Hobbiton. such as the thoroughly creepy “The Mewlips” from The Adventures
of Tom Bombadil. The Tolkien Ensemble. the rhyme captures a sense
of formal. or Mordor sound? The Hobbitons from the
Netherlands. Why. Their “Old
Walking Song (The Road Goes Ever On)” does for Hobbits what Stark
does for Elves.
130
. this song exposes students to verses they
may not have read. even ritualized narrative. would The Tolkien
Ensemble choose to represent the Hobbits with a guitar and the Elves with
a harp.
This inspires a discussion of how the students imagine Tolkien’s cultures
and settings. but some deserve special merit. which includes a classical interpretation of “Song
of the Rings.
which hails from Denmark. offer a rustic and pastoral tone in their
1996 album Songs from Middle-Earth (home. it sounds like
something one would imagine hearing in Elrond’s Halls of Fire. for example.

I (2002). soothing rhythm and introducing natural sounds. some students ﬁnd the character of Tom Bombadil in The Lord of the Rings to be a kind of jester ﬁgure. This Bombadil is wise and reassuring.com). humorous
and therefore easily discounted. Festa
emphasizes the warmth and welcome Bombadil provides as he promises
to go ahead of the weary travelers to light candles and open his door for
their welcome. however. Second. it is not uncommon for some students to skip these
lengthy verse passages either because of their unfamiliar format.“Tolkien Is the Wind and the Way” (Sturgis)
Adaptations also underscore how global and multifaceted Tolkien’s
impact continues to be. The stark otherworldliness of Caprice’s “Of Amroth and Nimrodel.
Additionally. for instance. Italian artist Giuseppe
Festa. Festa’s artistic choices focus attention on the safety of
Bombadil’s home. or the sense
that they are distractions from the primary narrative.
dramatic movements of Grimsditch’s “Eärendil. These tales are
worth emphasizing. “Of Amroth and Nimrodel” by Caprice from
the Russian Elvenmusic (2001).
the kind of character who could offer a safe haven where one could
dream deep dreams. are
dually instructive. light tunes that trippingly
play along his nonsensical singsong verses.” however. Festa’s interpretation of this song serves as a springboard for
fruitful debates about who and what Tom Bombadil is. command
attention. the type of creature who would not feel the pull of
the Ring.lingalad.” and the distinct. Choosing a slow. Vol. such as the splash of water in a brook. they allow students to revisit key stories from
Tolkien’s verses in a very entertaining and moving manner. adaptations can challenge and expand students’ reading of a text.
131
. and “Eärendil” by Andi Grimsditch from
the Argentinian The Tolkien Song Cycle. “Tom Bombadil’s Song (I)”
by The Tolkien Ensemble is one such example. For example. focuses on a more serious side of the character and his
purpose in “Tom Bombadil” from the 1999 album Voices from Middle
Earth (www. Musical adaptations sometimes reinforce Bombadil’s lunacy by creating bouncy. the signiﬁcant contrast of these adaptations’ musical
styles reﬂects the wide reach (both artistic and geographic) of Tolkien’s
inﬂuence. First. and why the Hobbits’ interlude in his home is important to the larger story of The Lord of
the Rings. and by implication the dangers the Hobbits faced
and will face on their journey.

There are a couple of exceptions to this rule. that Tolkien inspired
132
.
On the whole. Only by inspecting Rush’s 1975 album Fly
by Night do we see that the song “Rivendell” is included (www. The Great Luke
Ski proves the ongoing relevance and popularity of Tolkien’s Middle-earth
thirty-ﬁve years after Leonard Nimoy ﬁrst sang Bilbo’s praises.lukeski. The
Great Luke Ski’s 2003 “Stealing Like a Hobbit. Arwen.Middle-earth Minstrel
Sub-Sub Creations
Musical sub-sub-creations based on Tolkien’s sub-creation of Middleearth are so numerous that they present a daunting task to anyone who
wishes to present a sampling to an audience of students. The parodies are great fun for the class. Sam.com).com).
we only learn Led Zeppelin’s 1969 song “Ramble On” is an extended
Tolkien reference when we listen closely to the second verse and hear about
Gollum (see lyrics at www..rush. and they also serve as an auditory palette
cleanser before considering sub-sub-creations in depth. and these come from the category of parody. musical sub-sub-creations underscore similar lessons
as musical adaptations of Tolkien’s verses: speciﬁcally. and also pointing to the popularity of Tolkien
after the release of The Lord of the Rings trilogy in paperback editions. the author
focuses on musicians who have created entire theme albums in homage to
Middle-earth for this portion of the course. One expects a band named The Tolkien Ensemble to perform
Tolkien-related music. a pop dance tune extolling the virtues of Bilbo’s pipe and
toes in a humorous fashion. By combining lyrics that alternately represent the
point of view of Frodo. scholars. or an album titled Voices from Middle-earth to
include songs about Middle-earth. Will I prevail and survive or will the spider
get me?/ I don’t know: I haven’t read through Book Two and Book Three!”
(www. but sub-sub-creators who compose new
songs and verses inspired by Tolkien and his Middle-earth often do not
advertise themselves so overtly.led-zeppelin.” takes
particular aim at fans of Peter Jackson’s ﬁlms: “I really gotta pee. because Tolkien-related songs are so numerous. with references to recent
fantasy works such as the Harry Potter series and Shrek.” a pastiche of rapper
Eminem’s songs “Cleaning Out My Closet” and “Lose Yourself.
As a rule. No class
is complete without sampling the dubious delights of Leonard Nimoy’s
1968 groovefest “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins” from The Two Sides of
Leonard Nimoy.. and/or
fellow fans. and Gollum.com)./ Can we
please have intermission? .

“Tolkien Is the Wind and the Way” (Sturgis)
participatory storytelling through music, a global phenomenon that has
spanned nearly half a century. Individually, musical sub-sub-creations may
serve many of the same functions of fan ﬁction — that is, ﬁction written
by Tolkien’s readers and based on his writings. Some artists want to draw
attention to a particular theme of Tolkien’s work. Others seek to evoke a
feeling, inviting the audience to experience Middle-earth. Some wish to
explore the interior landscape of a character in order to uncover his or her
motivations and emotions. Others wish to “ﬁll in the gaps” and tell stories that tie together different threads of plot already woven in Tolkien’s
books.
The 1977 soundtrack to the Rankin/Bass ﬁlm The Hobbit includes a
folk-style song performed by Glenn Yarbrough entitled “Old Fat Spider.”
It relates a story that did not take place in Tolkien’s book The Hobbit.
According to the song, Bilbo, while defending the Dwarves from the spiders, encounters an old, decrepit spider in a tattered web that is nearly
blind with age. Rather than attacking this harmless creature, Bilbo spares
him, and even helps it obtain food for a meal. By telling an original story,
the song underscores Bilbo’s mercy, a key theme of The Hobbit, and one
that proves to have profound reverberations in The Lord of the Rings. Listening to this song opens a class discussion about the idea of mercy in both
books.
“Mithrandir,” from Leonard Roseman’s soundtrack to the 1978
Rankin/Bass ﬁlm The Lord of the Rings, offers an interpretation of the song
of mourning sung in Lothlórien by the Elves after the fall of Gandalf. The
song begins softly, talking about the night and the day to come, and builds
to a moving orchestral crescendo. Although they agree that the song stirs
the emotions, students often are puzzled as to why “Mithrandir” leads
with a children’s chorus, because they do not associate small children with
the realm of Galadriel and Celeborn. This objection leads to a class dialogue about this artistic choice. Why represent Lothlórien with children’s
voices? The class considers the range of attributes associated with children’s
voices: innocence, purity, even heavenliness. How do these relate to the
Elves? Might the fact that children are ageless, untainted by time, also play
a role in this choice? Why? As the students analyze “Mithrandir,” they gain
new insights about Tolkien’s understanding of the Elves and our own, as
well as the creating challenges of communicating the experience and “feeling” of a place like Lothlórien.

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Next the class moves to The Silmarillion with the German power metal
band Blind Guardian and their 1998 album Nightfall in Middle-Earth
(www.blind-guardian.com). This work retells the tragic story of the theft
of the Silmarils, the Oath of Fëanor, and the Kinslaying, to the dawn of
the Second Age. The driving energy of power metal, after the classic
orchestration of “Mithrandir” and the rustic folk of “Old Fat Spider,”
offers a powerful contrast in style. Although one can assume that Tolkien
was not a headbanger, the author often asks the class if this is nonetheless an appropriate sound to capture these stories from The Silmarillion.
The students often answer in the afﬁrmative. The music conveys rage and
despair, which ﬁts lyrics such as “The doom of the Noldor drew near/ The
words of a banished king, ‘I swear revenge!’” Not only does the song provide an excellent literacy test for the students, distilling a complex narrative and challenging them to identify all of the actors and actions to which
it refers, but “Nightfall” also involves the students with the loss and desolation of the story — it is difﬁcult to ignore the raw cry of “Our hearts full
of hate, full of pride,/ How we screamed for revenge!”— and opens the
door for additional exploration of Tolkien’s understanding of The Fall.
Continuing the chronological survey of sub-sub-creations, next comes
Kevin Henry’s 2000 American country/western theme album Bilbo’s Great
Adventure (www.thehobbitcd.com). The immediate issue that comes to
mind after hearing the song “Dared and Scared” is one of genre; just as
one questions why artists would choose power metal to ﬁt the violent
action of The Silmarillion, one must consider why an artist would use the
twang of traditional country/western music to complement the wholesome heroism of The Hobbit. Students often mention the rural, “small
town” feel of the Shire, and how the country/western sound allows them
to inhabit the story from Bilbo’s point of view. The lyrics add to the “local
boy makes good” message of the album, beginning by portraying Bilbo as
an underdog character with whom it is easy to identify and empathize.
“The End of Summer: Galadriel’s Song,” from Bob Catley’s 2001
British rock epic Middle-earth, is an excellent example of how a song may
illumine Tolkien’s texts for students (www.bobcatley.com). In fact, the
author ﬁnds it difﬁcult to limit herself to one song from Middle-earth, as
many raise interesting questions of interpretation. “The Return of the
Mountain King” compares the return of Thorin Oakenshield to the Lonely
Mountain in The Hobbit with the return of Aragorn to Gondor in The Lord

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“Tolkien Is the Wind and the Way” (Sturgis)
of the Rings, for example, and “The Fields That I Recall/ Stormcrow and
Pilgrim” considers how Gandalf is viewed differently by individual characters, from Frodo to Gríma Wormtongue. “The End of Summer: Galadriel’s
Song,” however, is a powerful rock ballad that students seem to especially
like. Its lyrics seem to alternate between Celeborn’s and Gimli’s point of
view, and appear to allude to Galadriel’s exile as described in The Silmarillion as well as her Lothlórien experience as detailed in The Lord of the
Rings. Galadriel’s characterization leads to particularly productive discussions. As students explore these metaphors, they consider what it means
in The Lord of the Rings for the age of the Elves to be waning, and why it
matters that Galadriel knows she and her land will diminish if the Ring is
destroyed, and yet she nevertheless chooses to support the Fellowship and
their quest. The song invites them to look at Galadriel as a character, even
as they consider the overarching theme of sacriﬁce.
Some sub-sub-creations allow listeners to enter the heads of characters to experience their motivations. “The Grey Havens” from the 2001
album The Rings Project by acoustic rock singer-songwriter Alan Horvath,
gives students a glimpse of Frodo’s emotional struggle as he prepares to
leave The Shire for the last time: “Sam, I really hate to go,/ But the time
has come for me/... I can sing of glory,/ Knowing that my people are free”
(http://www.alanhorvath.com/). “Aníron” from Howard Shore’s 2001
soundtrack to the ﬁlm The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings
gives insight into Aragorn’s love for Arwen. Composed in Tolkien’s Sindarin Elvish language, and performed by Enya, “Aníron” communicates
Aragorn’s enchantment and desire (www.howardshore.com). Such songs
can be used effectively as role-playing exercises. If they are persuaded by
the song, students usually gain more appreciation for the richness of the
characters; if they challenge the songwriters’ interpretations, they often are
forced to return to the text and marshal evidence in defense of a different
reading. Either outcome is productive.
Other sub-sub-creations offer “gap ﬁllers,” in that they relate stories
that ﬂesh out the narrative spaces where Tolkien remains silent. “Greenwood the Great (Shadowy Glades), from the 2001 album Music Inspired
by the Lord of the Rings by Canadian band Mostly Autumn, does this by
relating the story of how Greenwood the Great became Mirkwood, for
example (www.mostly-autumn.com). Although the lyrics suggest Sauron’s
approach, the bulk of the storytelling is instrumental, as the ethereal,

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Middle-earth Minstrel
understated melody is overtaken by harsh, ominous disharmony. This leaves
the transformation largely to the students’ imagination, and they discuss
the process by which a realm of Silvan Elves might have fallen under the
shadow of Sauron’s darkness, as well as what can be learned of Mirkwood’s
fate at the conclusion of the Third Age in Tolkien’s writings.
A particularly stirring piece is “The King’s Beer,” from 2001’s The
Middle-earth Album by American progressive rockers Glass Hammer
(www.glasshammer.com). This is the second of the band’s Tolkien theme
albums; the ﬁrst, 1993’s The Journey of the Dunadan retells The Lord of the
Rings from Aragorn’s perspective, and is noteworthy in particular for its
exploration of Aragorn’s feelings for Arwen in “The Way to Her Heart.”
The ﬁrst half of The Middle-Earth Album depicts a live performance from
the Prancing Pony pub at Bree, complete with clapping, stamping, and
Dwarvish hecklers in the audience. The rowdy drinking song “The King’s
Beer” suggests what might have happened when Aragorn, no longer Strider,
returned to visit his former haunt as King of Gondor. Rather than take
revenge on those who treated him as an outcast, or lord his new title over
the commoners of Bree, Aragorn proves himself a most egalitarian and
humble sovereign, buying a round of drinks and joining in his companions’
song: “Some kings may sip from a cup of gold,/ but a wooden mug is all
I’ll hold./” This puts students in the midst of Bree, as fellow audience
members with Men and Hobbits and Dwarves, and allows them to discuss
the atmosphere created by the song and how it ﬁts their conceptions of
the setting. The song also raises key questions about Aragorn’s style of
leadership and reign as king, which sends the class back to the texts to
consider Gondor and its relationship with other lands in the Fourth Age.
The Brodbingnagian Bards’ 2003 Celtic-inﬂuenced song “The Psychopathic, Chronic, Schizophrenic Gollum Blues” from Memories of Middle-earth would be at home at a Renaissance Faire (www.thebards.net).
Written from Frodo’s point of view, it describes how the Hobbit feels about
being “hunted by a schizo,/ Be it Smeagol or Gollum,” noting that the
creature “leading me to Mordor,/ Wonders if Sam and I are gay.” The
many self-conscious anachronisms of the song, which describes the journey to the Undying Lands as an “Elven cruise,” not only bring laughs,
but also allows the class to discuss how The Lord of The Rings speaks to
the twenty-ﬁrst-century reader and translates into modern popular culture.

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“Tolkien Is the Wind and the Way” (Sturgis)
Another self-consciously modern. and others. “Please.../ . a group of artists including Jon
Anderson.
when their Two Feet Tall debuted. promising “it waits for you and me/ In the story on the page. as well
as musicians who prefer folk and country/western and progressive rock and
power metal. Caitlin Elizabeth. “Whispers” from
Gollum’s.’” they sing. The American
progressive rock band has been making Tolkien-related music since 1977. the Lords of the
Rhymes (www...hobbitband.com). helps to underscore the wide reach and resonance of the
137
.” A whispered
“Open the book!” challenges listeners to become readers.lordsoftherhymes. Nevertheless.” In effect.com). This song provides a perfect place to end the musical tour on which the author takes
her class. work is Hobbit’s 2003 album All for the One (www. or even postmodern. don’t awaken from this dreamin..” This piece steps away from the album’s larger narrative to
encourage readers to let themselves go and enjoy Tolkien’s fairy-story: “Go
to a place called Middle-earth/ You’ll never again be the same. as it reminds one clearly of the relationship between Tolkien’s
words and the songs that have been heard. in the middle of these interpretive works is
a musical “aside” aimed directly at the audience. and the latest downloads from the ﬁrst Tolkien-related rappers in cyberspace. The constant production of new
Tolkien-related albums and songs gives the phenomenon of Middle-earthrelated world music a heritage of more than half a century.). etc. Get lost
in the fantasy!/ You and I. comin’ up the Greenway/ For Tolkien is the
wind and the way.
Conclusion
The author continually updates the playlist used for the class. The
most recent additions at the time of this writing include the excellent 2005
album In Elven Lands by The Fellowship. the band pauses from the act of channeling the characters in order to exhort fellow fans to abandon themselves to
the fantasy. Their latest album includes songs that
consider events depicted in The Lord of the Rings from different characters’ points of view (“One More Time” from Bilbo’s. Adam Pike. Sharing with students the fact that Tolkien
has inspired artists in Italy and Russia and Canada and Argentina. and proves that
the recent celebration of Tolkien in popular culture is not exclusively tied
to Peter Jackson’s ﬁlm trilogy. a song entitled “The Wind
and The Way.

All for the One. The Rings Project. New York: Ballantine. Reissue. Last visited 16 March. Dot. Ron Ploeg.
The Hobbitons. http://www.
Henry.
Roseman. Songs of Middle-Earth. 2001. Donald.
Mostly Autumn. The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy. Atlantic.
Tolkien Ensemble. Middle-earth. Now and Then Records. The Lord of the Rings: Complete Songs and Poems. 2001.
1979.com.
Lords of the Rhymes. In Elven Lands. Led Zeppelin II. 2001.
Festa. and Jules Bass. Memories of Middle-earth.
1991. The Middle-earth Album. 2005. Gunn-McKee. Leonard. Alan.
_____. Johan de. Century Media. David. 2001. Prikosnovenie. 2001. Warm Weather Music. Midwest.
Brobdingnagian Bards. The Road Goes Ever On and On: A Song Cycle.
_____. 1989. worlds. Kevin.lords
oftherhymes. 2001. 2007. 1975. 2000. Music Inspired by Middle-earth.
Swann. characters. Reissue. The Great Luke.
Blind Guardian. The Lord of the Rings: Symphonie No. 2002. 1997. James A.
Buena Vista.
Shore.
The Fellowship. Willem van Wordragen. 2002. Worst Album Ever. Andi. Arion. 2003. Nightfall in Middle-Earth.
Grimsditch. Maury. Elvenmusic.
Catley.
2006. The author likes to think that Master Tolkien would
approve. Ofﬁcial Website.
138
. BBC. and Gilles
Tuinman. Alan Horvath. 1996.
2003. Pongo Edizioni Musicali. Bilbo’s Great Adventure. I. Giuseppe. Music Inspired by the Lord of the Rings.
Horvath. Arion. Andi Grimsditch. Voices from Middle-earth.
Nimoy. Fantasy. 1. 1968. Stephen. 2003. The Tolkien Song Cycle. Neo Paciﬁc. Fly By Night.
Stark. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Original Soundtrack. 1967. 1978. Island/Mercury. The Lord of the Rings Original Soundtrack. with Glenn Yarbrough. 2003. Journey of the Dunadan. Leonard. Howard. Using songs to introduce discussions about Tolkien’s
themes. Premiere Music.
Ski.
Rush. and storylines challenges students to think in
imaginative and critical ways and bring new analytical tools to their reading of the texts.Middle-earth Minstrel
Middle-earth cycle. Prime Time Productions. Vol. United States of Distribution.
Laws. Reissue. Atma Classique. 1998. Luke Sienkowski. 1998. The Lord of the Rings Original Soundtrack to the BBC Radio Drama. The Hobbit Original Soundtrack.
Caprice. Songs from Middle-Earth.
Hobbit. 1993. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Original Soundtrack. 2001.
Works Cited
Arkenstone.
Meij. Classic Rock Legends.
Glass Hammer. 1977.
Warner/Reprise. 2001.
Led Zeppelin. Warner/Reprise.
Oliver. 1969. The. Bob.

For much
of his life Tolkien could afford neither the time nor the money for frequent
concerts.
and More Music
David Bratman
Music in Tolkien’s Life and Legendarium
Much has been written on the role of music in J. Michael White in his biography of
Tolkien writes.R. and this one is nonsense.2 White bases his statement partly on Tolkien’s
known antipathy to the popular music of his adulthood3. it was vitally
important to him. This is obvious from his works alone. Tolkien’s imaginary lands of Middle-earth.”1
White’s book is. Middle-earth. so there was the opportunity for
ﬁne music-making at home. White also notes that Tolkien rarely attended concerts. [it] seems to have been
a blank area in his artistic tastes. “He had little interest in music ... his wife
Edith was a pianist of considerable talent. and while he himself had no aptitude as a performer. but as Tolkien
was equally antipathetic to many other cultural features of his time. a landmine of inaccurate and misleading statements. regrettably. as well as from
his declared love for music. the
operative phrase is of his time and this says nothing about his interest in
music. Tolkien loved music. but less consideration has been given to the
importance of music to Tolkien personally. Tolkien. and White
has perhaps mistaken lack of quantity for lack of quality. The Tolkien home
had a piano. Some writers even deny that
music had any importance to him.R.Liquid Tolkien:
Music. His tastes in piano music included the often-
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. but Tolkien was also in his artistic tastes a connoisseur.

Liquid Tolkien (Bratman)
delicate miniatures of Frédéric Chopin.
most of the poems he recited in spoken voice.” the way Tolkien actually imagined
it.
Tolkien makes no claims for the quality of the Misty Mountains poem
he prints. especially the clarinets. ﬁddles. even if the text says the characters sang them.
Tolkien says that he sings it “to an old tune. But this one.4 And he had regular encounters
with live music while attending Catholic Mass. we do have a very good idea of
this — or at least we do for some of it.
And as often as not that poetry is described as being sung.
Tolkien’s love for music is also reﬂected in his ﬁction. but as ever in his ﬁction. but says it “is like a fragment of [the Dwarves’] song. The very ﬁrst
poem in The Hobbit. harp
and drum. is “an old English folk-tune called The Fox and Hens. When Sam stands up before Strider
and the hobbits in the Trollshaws to present the tale of the Stone Troll.6 From here on. but surely so was Sam’s. what subcreationally would be
called “Middle-earth in translation. anachronisms and all.”8 That last clause makes it seem
hopeless to try to reproduce what Tolkien imagined the music of Middleearth should sound like. clarinets. Tolkien himself sang. But. there are
some amazing anachronisms and misﬁts here.” Certainly “The Stone Troll” scans identically to all the texts I have
seen for “The Fox and the Goose”— the tale of a fox hunting down and
141
. surprisingly. if it can
be like their song without their music. Turn to almost
any chapter of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings and you will ﬁnd poetry. an
instrument not invented until the 18th century. viols. I mean the music it is
“calqued” on. when I
allude to the “actual” music of Middle-earth.”
This is apparently a Birmingham variant tune — untranscribed in any folksong ﬁeld collection books this writer examined — for the folk-song better known as “The Fox and the Goose” or “The Fox Went Out on a Chilly
Night.10
Tolkien’s voice is rough and untrained.5
If Middle-earth has a prehistoric or even a medieval setting.” is described as
accompanied by a Dwarf orchestra of ﬂutes. The
tune that Tolkien sings.
Tolkien is more interested in effect than accuracy. to use Tom Shippey’s term7. not the music of a hypothetical prehistoric civilization. in words slightly different from the published version. “Far over the misty mountains cold.”9 When Tolkien read selections from The Lord of the Rings into George Sayer’s tape recorder in 1952. George Sayer says in his liner notes to the LP
release of the tapes.

Middle-earth Minstrel
devouring a goose with the same gusto as Sam’s troll devotes to its bone —
and thus can be sung to any of the various tunes known for it. Tolkien
sings a major-key melody, which is thus not in the class usually called
modal, but that is true of many traditional English folk tunes, including
all of the southern English melodies Cecil Sharp collected for “The Fox
and the Goose” from 1908 to 1914, and Tolkien’s is very much in their
style.11 And this is appropriate for, as Tolkien observed, “the Shire ... is in
fact more or less a Warwickshire village of about the period of the Diamond Jubilee,”12 that is in 1897, when Tolkien was ﬁve and living in Sarehole, at a time when English villagers were still singing the folk songs that
were to be collected by Cecil Sharp and his colleagues a few years later.
In various settings of “The Stone Troll” by Tolkien-inspired songwriters, a little American hillbilly twang may creep in, as in the fast, bouncy
ﬁddle and jaws harp accompaniment to Brocelïande’s setting of “The Man
in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late.”13 This may seem incongruous, but it
is not exactly inappropriate, for Appalachian songs are often astonishingly
well-preserved variants of the English originals — and they too all have the
air of English folk-songs.14
So Tolkien meant us to think of the hobbits as English country folk
singing English folk songs. Which is why it was so disconcerting to go to
Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring movie and hear the hobbits depicted
by music that is not English at all but neo–Celtic: composer Howard
Shore’s attempt at copies of Irish whistle and ﬁddle-and-accordion tunes
in lush orchestral arrangements. Tolkien spent a lifetime differentiating
English civilization from Celtic. He would have been deeply unhappy, to
say the least, to have heard Irish music, and imitation Irish music at that,
applied to his hobbits. If orchestral music is wanted for a hobbit ﬁlm,
some apt examples are offered by the actual folk song collectors among
English composers, who based many compositions on their ﬁndings. Ralph
Vaughan Williams’s popular Fantasia on Greensleeves, whose middle section is a folk melody called “Lovely Joan,” or Gustav Holst’s Somerset
Rhapsody, Op. 21 No. 2, employing the same melody for “A Rosebud in
June” as used in Steeleye Span’s arrangement on their electric-folk album
Below the Salt, are works that Tolkien might have accepted as orchestral
ﬁlm music for hobbits. Some readers say they cannot hear the ethnic difference between this English music and Shore’s neo–Celtic. But Tolkien
could.

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Liquid Tolkien (Bratman)
What about the Elves? There is more elven music in the “Silmarillion” tales than one might expect: in various tellings, Lúthien dances to a
pipe unseen, and sings to sleep both Sauron and Morgoth, for instance;
but few have attempted to re-create such music. The most prominent music
is in the “Ainulindalë,” which is discussed below.
For Elves in The Lord of the Rings, again we have Tolkien’s own evidence, both from Sayer’s tape recorder and as reported by Donald Swann,
whose song cycle The Road Goes Ever On was the ﬁrst authorized setting
of Tolkien’s poems to original music. “Professor Tolkien approved ﬁve [of
my songs],” says Swann, “but bridled at my music for ‘Namárië.’ He had
heard it differently in his mind, he said, and hummed a Gregorian chant.”15
It was indeed what Tolkien had in mind, and consistently so, for
Swann’s transcription of Tolkien’s hum is astonishingly close, differing only
in a few small details, to the chant that Tolkien had intoned into George
Sayer’s tape recorder some thirteen years earlier. Clearly, then, Tolkien had
the same melodic line in mind over that gap in time. Swann has left
Tolkien’s unaccompanied setting largely a cappella, adding only his own
instrumental introduction, interlude, and coda. In both versions, this has
the feel of plainchant to it: the melodic ﬂow, the a cappella monophony,
that is, the lack of harmonic accompaniment. What it lacks is melisma,
the characteristic stretching of a syllable over many notes; instead it has
the opposite, the holding of a note for many syllables, which also occurs
in Gregorian chant, though less commonly.
Why Gregorian chant, though? This type of plainchant was systematized as the standard liturgical music of the Catholic Church by Pope
Gregory I about 600 A.D. It may still be heard occasionally today, and was
a frequent accompaniment to Catholic masses up until the reforms of the
Second Vatican Council. To Tolkien, a conservative Catholic, Gregorian
chant would have been the music of holiness and closeness to God. That
sense of connection to the divine is part of what Tolkien is trying to show
with the Elves and their connection to Valinor, and Catholic symbolism
in the Elves has often been noted by critics, so why should not their music
be divine Catholic music? This is perhaps not the sound that most readers think of in connection with the Elves; but it is clearly what Tolkien
thought ﬁt for Galadriel, at least.16
The Dwarf orchestra mentioned in The Hobbit is unusual. Most of
the songs in The Lord of the Rings are unaccompanied or with minimal

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Middle-earth Minstrel
accompaniment such as a harp. The Rohirrim chant or recite alliterative
verse. Some work has been done recently in reconstructing the likely musical styles and accompaniment used by Anglo-Saxon bards, but Tolkien is
unlikely to have been deeply familiar with this research. In any case he
recited and did not sing or chant the Rohirric poetry into Sayer’s tape
recorder. The only other poem in the Sayer collection he sang at all was the
Ents’ marching song on Isengard, which he gives as a very simple, primitive chant.
The most remarkable musical event in all of Tolkien’s legendarium is
the “Ainulindalë,” the Music of the Creation of Arda. Surely it should not
be possible to read a mythological creation story in which the world is
created through music, and then write that that music meant little to its
author.
The account of the Great Music is remarkably detailed, as precise as
many a program note description of actual concert music; it could serve
as a detailed blueprint for any composer audacious enough to try to create
a musical version of this story.17 Tolkien is describing, with considerable
sophistication, a massive structure of counterpoint, in which themes create harmony by being played simultaneously in different voices, and themes
evolve one into another. “The voices of the Ainur, like unto harps and
lutes, and pipes and trumpets, and viols and organs, and like unto countless choirs singing with words, began to fashion the theme of Ilúvatar to
a great music; and a sound arose of endless interchanging melodies woven
in harmony that passed beyond hearing.... [It] was deep and wide and
beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which
its beauty chieﬂy came.”18
What could Tolkien have thought it ought to sound like? Something
of unearthly beauty, to be sure, but in the form of music you could actually hear, there is no question in my mind: if the Elves were singing Gregorian chant, the Ainur would be singing sacred choral music. From the
slowness and calm Tolkien describes — reminiscent of the “music of the
spheres,” the constant “hum” of harmony supposed by medieval philosophy to be emitted by the planets — combined with complexity and intricacy, one likely inspiration is the elegant and transparent music of the
High Renaissance. Works by Giovanni Palestrina, or the Vespers of 1610 by
Claudio Monteverdi, or the antiphonal motets by the great Venetian, Giovanni Gabrieli, convey the same epic, resonant grandeur as Tolkien’s story.

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Liquid Tolkien (Bratman)
But from the scale at which this story works, and Tolkien’s reference
to the sound of many instruments, what comes to my mind’s ear when
reading the “Ainulindalë” is the mighty choral-orchestral masterworks of
the 18th century, when sacred choral music reached its greatest magniﬁcence and sophistication. One might imagine, perhaps, the voices of the
Ainur creating a fugue, a musical form in which a single theme is overlaid
on top of itself in different voices, creating complexity by interweaving.
Something, perhaps, like the fugue concluding George Frideric Handel’s
oratorio Messiah, an enormous four-voice structure of 88 bars whose text
is but a single word, “Amen.”
Messiah is the centerpiece of the British sacred choral repertoire, and
a work Tolkien must have known, even though Handel was a Protestant.
But there is Catholic music of the period with the same magniﬁcence. The
“Confutatis” from W.A. Mozart’s Requiem, K. 626, setting the words
“Confutatis maledictus, ﬂammis acribus addictis” (“When the wicked are
confounded, doomed to ﬂames of woe unbounded”) in a ﬁerce Sturm und
Drang, contrasted with the gentle supplication of the rest of the movement, embodies a conﬂict akin to that between the discord of Melkor and
the harmony of Ilúvatar in the “Ainulindalë.” The only problem is that
Mozart presents the two styles sequentially, rather than simultaneously as
Tolkien describes them. But it might not be possible for the human mind
to compose music that would convey both discord and harmony at the same
time without sounding like a muddle. Most music, even of the most direct
storytelling nature, that tries to present two sides with widely varying music
at the same time, tends to present them in turns.
The Gloria in D, RV 589, by the Venetian Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi, is another well-known work of sacred Catholic vocal music
that might induce the same sense of excitement and awe as a reading of
the “Ainulindalë.”
Tolkien always expected, or at least hoped, that music would be written inspired by his writings. Literature has always inspired composers,
even of non-vocal music. One thinks of Shakespearean music ranging
from Felix Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream incidental music to
Serge Prokoﬁev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet to Giuseppe Verdi’s not one but
three Shakespearean operas, Macbeth, Otello, and Falstaff. And that is just
a small sampling of the foreign composers inspired by one great English
writer. In his long letter to Milton Waldman describing his legendarium,

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” that is the non-literary arts. and in one case certainly did. that would “leave scope for other minds and hands.19 To Carey
Blyton. the Lewis brothers. is something more speciﬁc:
composers whose work Tolkien could have known.Middle-earth Minstrel
Tolkien mentions his original ambition to create a mythological cycle of
varied legends.21
His crossness on the subject was due to the assumption by ignorant critics.. or music that you hope Tolkien might have liked. though. who were. in
an evening reading aloud the libretto of Die Walküre. most of them. no match for the quality of the story it tried to tell. Listeners may discover these earlier masters to be better composers than
Howard Shore. It is easy enough to
have a listening party consisting of music that you personally think would
go well with Tolkien.. it is because
composers like these established the style by writing music like this.
146
. What we want here.. part of the Ring cycle. but that runs the risk of being an
arbitrary selection. inspired by literature akin to Tolkien’s
own works.
in preparation for an anticipated trip to hear the opera staged in London. and to get a sense of what the great masters of
the previous century or two might have written had they had the chance
to be inspired by Tolkien. whose music I found merely serviceable. or feel that it was akin to [his] own
inspiration. but misunderstandings of his reaction are common. He once joined his friends.”20
To gauge the type of music that Tolkien might have hoped would be
inspired by his writings.
have inspired a composer. wielding paint and music and drama. He was not unwilling to listen to Wagner’s music.
Tolkien is well-known to have been antipathetic to Wagner. one might listen to some music inspired by the
literature that itself nourished Tolkien’s imagination.” adding plaintively that he “hoped also that
[he] might ﬁnd the result intelligible . If the kind of sweeping
Romantic score that Howard Shore wrote for Peter Jackson’s ﬁlms feels
like the kind of music that ought to go in a ﬁlm like that.
whether or not he could have heard it. and who are among the composers who established the musical vocabulary that means epic fantasy today. the four-opera cycle
by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner loosely dramatizing stories from the medieval German Nibelungenlied and the Norse Volsunga Saga. one stands monumentally above all others: Der Ring des Nibelungen.. Tolkien wrote that he had “long hoped to . competent but
uninspired hackwork.
Of all musical works based on medieval literature. as described below.

more advanced special effects are used to make
the singer sound like he is still on stage interacting with the other characters.
Tolkien weaves an epic tale of wonder and beauty mixed with danger. and a resignation to easilyavoided tragic fate.Liquid Tolkien (Bratman)
mistaking common features for inﬂuence. Wagner represented this by directing the singer wearing the helm to leave the stage and
sing through a speaking-tube. whips his hapless brother Mime. “All. And
the music.”23
Even fantasy readers with no interest in opera may already be familiar with Wagner’s music — they have. an unavoidably crude solution. rather as if The Lord of the Rings had been all about Boromir.
he thought. In modern
stagings and recordings. Each had an
ethos close to Tolkien’s in some respects.
while Wagner’s Ring essentially boils down to a kind of soap opera of the
gods. that Wagner’s work must have
inspired The Lord of the Rings. recovery.” he said24— but the resemblances do go beyond that. but that very fact makes the fundamental differences in treatment stand out. that are alien to Tolkien’s deep-rooted senses of pity. Wagner’s Ring
does not lend invisibility. featuring the rise and self-inﬂicted fall of a bombastic heroic demigod.
sorrow. a scornful joy in destruction. had got something very important not quite right. and immediately succumbs to
temptation by declaring himself Lord of the Nibelungs. and there the resemblance
ceases. and hopeful faith in a more positive fate despite all loss. Theirs was more of a distant sibling relationship: each transformed themes and plot elements from
Norse saga and poetry into original and independent works of art. rather than hearkening backwards with digniﬁed restraint as
147
. Wagner’s story has
a ruthlessness. probably heard the
motif from Siegfried’s funeral march repeated over and over in John Boorman’s ﬁlm Excalibur— but Wagner’s treatment of magic deserves a little
attention. A familiarity with the medieval sources that
inspired both writers would eradicate that error. if nothing else. Das Rheingold.22
Tolkien’s reaction to Wagner seems to have been the same kind of mixed
feeling as he had about Shakespeare and George MacDonald. It appears
in the prelude to the Ring. but there is a magic helm which does. Tolkien was very cross when someone compared his Ring with
that of the Nibelungs —“Both rings were round. In Tom Shippey’s words.
A liking for Wagner is quite common among Tolkien fans — there were
even Wagner record listening sessions at early Mythopoeic Conferences —
but the spirits of their works are actually very different. where Alberich the evil dwarf dons
the helm.

If Tolkien had mixed feelings about Wagner.” a hurricane. In an interview.25 This is a striking comment. It may be surprising that Tolkien. Though it was written in 1821. With a musical vocabulary
more restrained than Wagner’s. and wearing hyper-charged emotions with an openness
unlike Tolkien’s stylized formality. the faerie Wild Hunt. magic. It is easy to admire Wagner’s Ring. composers to paint fantasy with musical notes. and tragedy. the music is stunningly evocative.
and ﬁnally Caspar’s master. Weber was one of the ﬁrst. through galloping triplets for the
wheels of ﬁre. Jean Sibelius. invented German Romantic opera. ﬂames start from the earth. but just as daring for its time. long before most
other composers had set up romantic picture-painting into a guiding principle.
the villain.”27 Sibelius was a
generation older than Tolkien. The successive portents
become more elaborate both musically and in description: night-birds. lightning and hail. and penultimately a
“storm of thunder. but no sensitive reader would conﬂate it with
Tolkien’s. In turn they summon a series of unnatural portents. meteors appear on the hills. he apparently had quite
positive feelings about Wagner’s great predecessor.Middle-earth Minstrel
Tolkien’s prose does. a
wild boar that “darts wildly across. the man who. to a commanding tutti theme for the storm and meteors
through to Samiel. and she explains: “Like Tolkien. &c. This can
be heard most vividly in the famous Wolf ’s Glen scene from Act II of his
opera Der Freischütz. a
masterpiece of its kind. as Wagner himself testiﬁed. “It’s liquid Tolkien!” Ellen Kushner raved
when she ﬁrst heard Sibelius. has gone to a haunted glen in the woods to cast seven magical
bullets. and
one of the best. Sibelius has
it all: sweeping grandeur. so uncomfortable with fantasy drama. should have enjoyed
such a ﬂamboyantly supernatural operatist. Tolkien said that he “had always been extremely
fond” of Weber’s music.” The music in turn evolves from trills and
woodwind chirps representing the birds. is constantly pushing at the limits of harmonic practice of the day. who at last appears in a sudden hush and ﬁnal blare
of sound.26
The major composer who most reminds listeners of Tolkien is the
Finnish master. Carl Maria von
Weber. the devil Samiel. and with a
far more vivid imagination than Wagner. mystery. the Wild Hunt. “four wheels darting ﬁre
[that] roll across the stage. The opera’s plot is sinister and
complex: all a listener needs to know to follow this scene is that Caspar. and wrote most of his music between 1890
148
.

however. into futile tasks. so
here one may not only encounter the stories that inspired Tolkien. This work is a symphonic poem in
ﬁve movements titled Kullervo. After a slow. it tells of the adventures of that one
of the heroes of the Kalevala. the listener might turn to Pohjola’s
Daughter. one of the saga’s heroes. whose work. dark opening. This is the period when Finland sought and gained its independence from Russia. Op. then. was actually more deeply considered and thoroughly transformative than that establishment had any notion of. Each section of
the seduction scene begins with the narrating chorus singing the same
opening words —“Kullervo. Three of
the movements are purely orchestral.
149
.
“Kullervo and His Sister. representing Väinämöinen. is his sister. also. but at
the same time hear the primary-world language. 49. These are basically atmospheric works rather than story-telling ones. than that he should turn for inspiration to Finland’s
national epic. 7. is choral. even his abstract symphonies. clothed in a welcoming
accessibility. the best-known
are The Swan of Tuonela (part of a Lemminkäinen Suite. like Túrin Turambar. but the story ends similarly.” sets a long dialogue and narration from the
Kalevala depicting that tragic meeting. Op. that chieﬂy
inspired his elven tongue of Quenya. which permeates most of the
composer’s orchestral works. Finnish. Op. such as making a boat from
her spindle. 22) and Tapiola. with
Kullervo realizing his misdeed and wishing himself woe. giving the movement a sense of repetitive structure. For speciﬁc narrative content. unknown to him. The unnamed sister is a feistier and
more reluctant companion than Nienor. but the central and longest one.
Sibelius’s major work based on the Kalevala. Like Tolkien’s. while a series of wind motifs evolve into a broader theme
and a ﬁrst climax in the brass: this music. Op. the music suddenly picks up with
a string ostinato. and Sibelius was an ardent nationalist.
Sibelius’s work has a myth-drenched air. Kalervon poika” (Kullervo. 122. Kullervo is the one who.Liquid Tolkien (Bratman)
and 1925. is
the selection Kushner chose to represent Sibelius on her radio program
about Tolkien and music. the Kalevala. mates with a woman who. the same work whose study by Tolkien inspired
the language Quenya and large parts of the plot of The Silmarillion?
Like Tolkien. It depicts a mysterious woman who taunts Väinämöinen. Of Sibelius’s
numerous orchestral tone poems based on the Kalevala. Sibelius was a superﬁcially conservative writer. son of Kalervo)—
to the same music. scorned
by the avant-garde establishment. What could be
more natural.

The digniﬁed acting of “R. Those who know only his Pomp
and Circumstance March No. and always looked on it as his true home.
like Tolkien’s.28
Unlike Weber or Sibelius. like Tolkien.
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are actually works of a great
variety of moods. from
Worcestershire. he came from the West Midlands. mixes with tears of sadness.Middle-earth Minstrel
Kullervo is an early work and not always characteristic of Sibelius’s mature
music. 1.
he was a generation older than Tolkien. The slow and serious “Nimrod” holds a place in the English
national pantheon roughly similar to that which Samuel Barber’s Adagio
for Strings holds for Americans.” could depict comfortable hobbit living. Anyone who wants symphonic music for the death of Thorin
or the funeral of Théoden. He was in fact remarkably like Tolkien. he
was a devout Roman Catholic. where
solemn joy. Like Sibelius. the graceful old home of “W.-P. he was a product of the Victorian and Edwardian eras.A. and felt increasingly out of place in the bustling
modern commercial world that dominated after World War I.T. a deep vein of melancholy. Op.”
could as easily apply to a pleasant stay in Rivendell.
Beneath his bluff exterior he hid.S. or for the end of The Lord of the Rings. like Tolkien. the serious and feeling conversation.” could equally be the tremendous learning and glinting wit of Gandalf. of “R. but then so is the Enigma Variations. the ﬂirtatious “Dorabella” could be the whimsical Elves from
150
. Elgar was not much of a fantasist — though
he did once collaborate on a musical fairy play with Algernon Blackwood —
but the somber nobility that pervades much of his work is a perfect match
for Tolkien’s. Elgar’s galumphing
attempt to teach “Troyte” to play the piano might pass for a fast ride on
Shadowfax. like Tolkien. for victory won.D.
But there is another composer who may seem even closer than Sibelius
in character to Tolkien: the Englishman Sir Edward Elgar. his patriotism was a love of the land and its people.” could
be Bilbo running down to the Green Dragon. may think of Elgar as a ﬂag-waving imperialist patriot. surely could not
do better than the famous “Nimrod” variation from Elgar’s Enigma Variations. 36.P. The personality
portraits of Elgar’s friends in the diverse variations would ﬁt splendidly
with the books. not a
jingoistic imperialism.N.B. the fast piano warm-up exercises of “H. but he
was not really like that at all. and its application to Tolkien would honor
both creative artists. famous from a few thousand high-school
graduations. broken up by humor. but by size alone it is worthy of note. like Tolkien.

and there Butterworth died. and a
more appealingly Tolkienian one. and. were not the only composers of this generation
to ﬁnd the collecting. The Dream of Gerontius. Butterworth served as an ofﬁcer
on the Somme.
38. Vaughan Williams in
some of his later symphonies (the brutal Fourth and nihilistic Sixth) and
Holst even more famously in the “Mars” movement of The Planets.R.”’s bulldog falling into the River
Wye would be perfect for Bilbo struggling to stay on top of his barrel in
the River Running. Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav
Holst.30 Elgar’s
music is rich in Tolkienian resonance.G.
Sir Thomas Armstrong was another English pastoralist composer of
151
. 55. though by now clichéd. “G. From his large-scale Catholic oratorio. Like Tolkien. were
like Tolkien in another way: despite their pastoral associations. transcribing. the sober and dedicated cello playing of “B. and arranging of folk songs to be
rewarding. in which one critic has seen a quest narrative structure speciﬁcally
comparable to those of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
A few other composers of Tolkien’s time and place deserve mention. a dramatic ostinato that. Vaughan
Williams and Holst. Op. was not.”
might picture Frodo and Sam slowly trudging towards Mordor.N. Op. friends of Butterworth who survived the war.
Op. Another was George Butterworth. felled by a sniper. an Oxford graduate a few
years older than Tolkien. mentioned above. amazingly. all these diverse portraits are variations on the same theme. best known for an idyllic orchestral piece called
The Banks of Green Willow. A Lord of the Rings ﬁlm that used this for its
music could have been a very different work from Peter Jackson’s. they were
capable of terrifying depictions of war in their art.
Many composers of the generation after Elgar — of Tolkien’s own age and
a little older — were deeply drawn to the English countryside and culture
as Tolkien was.
Nor need this be the only Elgar work that would ﬁt a Tolkien setting.
32. becoming “landscape” composers of a kind that Elgar. setting a poem by John Cardinal Newman on the journey of a man’s
soul from death to Purgatory.Liquid Tolkien (Bratman)
The Hobbit singing in the trees. Appropriate Tolkien settings could surely be found for the other variations as
well. Elgar has it all. for
all his love of his country. he was
probably the greatest loss to British music from World War I.29 to his Symphony No. would go well with
the iron-bound disasters of the crawl of Grond in The Lord of the Rings or
the fall of Gondolin in The Silmarillion.S. 1 in A-ﬂat Major.

and his love for poetry expressed itself in a very Tolkienian interest
in the meaning of words used in the critical vocabulary of both arts.33 Their writings display their opinions and tastes. maintained by Chris Seeman.
Music Inspired by Tolkien
The realm of music inspired by Tolkien is a large and perilous one. was visiting England when
he came across a copy of William Morris’s translation of Beowulf. or it can be
152
. This was perhaps the ﬁrst music
since Anglo-Saxon times to be inspired by Beowulf.Middle-earth Minstrel
this generation.
The deﬁnitive discography of Tolkien-inspired music is The Tolkien Music
List.
But this Oxford music don and.31
In 1921. Tolkien might have found
Hanson’s musical idiom a little severe. Sturgis and
Diane Joy Baker are among the many others who have written on Tolkieninspired music. later. this article displays mine. principal of the Royal Academy of
Music is of special interest as a colleague and personal friend of Tolkien’s.
There are many approaches to Tolkien-inspired music. Amy H.
particularly for Beyond Bree. Howard Hanson. whatever “reality” may mean in this context. the music that they would have
played in reality. though he was more drawn to setting metaphysical poetry
than to transcribing folk song as were Vaughan Williams and his colleagues. and its regions are so varied
that no one commentator could be an equally learned guide to all its regions. Musical settings of his poetry can be either attempts to hypothesize a subcreationally
appropriate music for hobbits and elves.
One article could not even begin to cover it.
He advised Tolkien concerning the performance of Swann’s Road Goes Ever
On. a young American composer of Swedish ancestry. There are no evaluative reviews on this
site.32 listing every piece of recorded music
he can ﬁnd that sets Tolkien’s poetry. poetry
and music. while Tolkien was teaching at Leeds. but the subject was certainly close
to his heart. Besides Ellen Kushner. The
solemn austerity of the poem so struck Hanson that he set the ending as
a choral work called Lament for Beowulf. but Seeman has reviewed a number of notable popular music albums. and also perhaps the
only modern attempt to set its verses to music. or openly alludes to or was acknowledgely inspired by Tolkien’s work.

either as a song or as some other form of vocal music. and this in turn can be in purely
instrumental form. These bands
are not interested in Tolkien in any way that serious Tolkien readers would
understand as interested in Tolkien. others are just
using him as a take-off point to travel somewhere else. like a tone poem of the kind perfected by
Richard Strauss. as
ﬁltered through the individual musician’s ears. When Led Zeppelin sings of ﬁnding “a girl so fair” in Mordor. they just think orcs and Nazgûl are
cool. This probably explains the startling number
of heavy metal and thrash-rock groups on Chris Seeman’s list.” adding to
Tolkien’s sub-creation is not what he was trying to do.Liquid Tolkien (Bratman)
just whatever sort of music the poetry as poetry inspires the composer to
write. surely not the question the song
intends to pose — it’s just using Tolkien as a convenient backdrop to let
Led Zeppelin be themselves.34 this is not setting Tolkien
to music.
153
.
Except for strict attempts to create “real” hobbitish and elven music —
and sometimes even then — the ﬁrst thing a listener realizes on hearing
any Tolkien-inspired music is that. Donald Swann in particular has received some unjustiﬁed criticism
on that account. just as with Tolkien-inspired artwork. But it should begin by saying a little about other forms of
Tolkienian music. as composers have done with poetry for centuries.
And any of these may be in any musical genre imaginable — and they
have been. and
classical and folk settings of Tolkien’s poetry. but apart from his anomalous “Namárië. one would
immediately ask what she is doing there. and probably was not intended that way — if it were. or by writing one’s own text and setting that to music. it can be a character portrait. or it can be more amorphous
and atmospheric. Confusion can
arise if a setting intended merely as a composer’s artistic response to Tolkien
is taken as an attempt to make a consistent addition to Tolkien’s sub-creation. Some composers are aiming at narrowly-deﬁned direct responses to Tolkien’s works. It is an aural image of Tolkien. a composer can create an artistic response to Tolkien’s
work without using Tolkien’s words. Tolkien-inspired music has been written in all these
ways. Even that will have to be
very selective. Instrumental music
can try to tell a story in music.
what you are hearing is not Tolkien.
Alternatively. This survey will concentrate on the musical genres most meaningful to this writer: classical orchestral music inspired by Tolkien.

and of which they
had not read any more than the ﬁrst few paragraphs. even in the 1960s and 1970s. and references to obscure television shows. sex. A friend of this writer’s who is learned in these matters suggests
that the deﬁning characteristic of a neo-progressive rock group is gratuitous Tolkien references. it is otherwise unrelated
to Tolkien. the mid–1980s reunion of a ﬁctional early heavy-metal band called
the Nazgûl.R. Their music. “after the ﬂying baddies in the books. or even the author. not all rock and pop musicians inspired by Tolkien were orc-lovers.” either to avoid copyright conﬂicts or after ﬁnding that the full word would not ﬁt on their album cover.” to quote the same character.Middle-earth Minstrel
A novel called The Armageddon Rag by George R. This band supposedly gets its start about 1967.” but as this history would suggest. It is merely necessary that “the whole
Tolkien bag. One neo-prog rock band without a Tolkienian name. But there is no sense of a cynical exploitation of Tolkien.37 The group that is generally considered to have
founded this style in the 1980s. is said to have cut the name
down from “Silmarillion.35 rather similar to an American version of Led Zeppelin. Glass
154
. There really was such a thing
as Tolkien ﬂower-children.” as one of the characters casually puts it.38 A band called
Ilúvatar is said to have chosen its name from a copy of The Silmarillion
that one of its members had picked up at a yard sale. be lurking around in the background somewhere. leaving behind everything Tolkienian but
a few relics: the band name and their logo. the Eye of Sauron. There is
little evidence in the novel that the band members. because this ethos expects that it will be there. It recounts.
know much more about Tolkien than that. when the ﬁrst Tolkien
craze was at its height: they begin by playing off Tolkien references.36
Nor is Tolkien-based rock of subsequent years all heavy-metal. either.
Of course. along with drugs. my friend tells me. They just thought
the name sounded cool. Marillion. Martin gives
some insight into this mindset without forcing the dubious auditor to listen to the music. with
a ﬁrst album titled Hot Wind Out of Mordor and song titles like “Elf Rock”
(à la Led Zeppelin’s real-life “Misty Mountain Hop”). far
from it. is “amazingly
pretentious. as a heavy-handed but well-crafted dark fantasy. and this gentle but rather airy side of Tolkienian music may be heard in its purest form in a sequence titled “Songs of
the Quendi” on Sally Oldﬁeld’s album Water Bearer. but soon enough
they turn to generalized inchoately loud and angry music and lyrics that
Martin intends as echt Sixties.

” he wrote. was good
casual fun to listen to.” What
ﬂattered Tolkien was the reﬂection of his work in music. Journey of the Dunadan was a pretentious prog-rock
summary of Aragorn’s part of the story. Entirely and cheerfully
anachronistic. Blyton was completely unlike Musgrave. the idea of music inspired by Tolkien’s works
apparently ﬁrst took on concrete meaning in the early 1960s.39
In the primary world.” he explained. titled The Middle-earth Album.
The other composer who wrote to Tolkien was an Englishman named
Carey Blyton. though at least one stage work
of hers. “[I hope] also that
I might perhaps ﬁnd the result intelligible to me. or misapply
his invented names to hydrofoil boats.40 Nothing came of her proposal for some sort of
opera based on The Lord of the Rings. produce inept dramatizations.”41 He gave far less polite responses to people who wanted
to write sequels to his work.
because Glass Hammer followed it up several years later with an entire
album in the persona of an imaginary Middle-earth bar band. One was a Scotswoman
named Thea Musgrave. formidable serialist music. vaguely in
the electric folk style. They could not possibly have been more different from each other. “You certainly have my permission. the kind
that audiences stay away from in droves. and not at
155
. or to Siamese cats (a breed he
detested).” He need not have worried.Liquid Tolkien (Bratman)
Hammer. “Music gives me great
pleasure and sometimes inspiration. an art he respected
but had no pretentions to mastering on his own. “As an author I am honoured to
hear that I have inspired a composer. I have long hoped to do so. with a lighter interlude in the form
of a couple of songs as the band imagined might have been sung in the
Prancing Pony. is better-known in Tolkien circles for two albums inspired by
The Lord of the Rings. when Tolkien received letters of inquiry
from two young British concert-music composers. enjoyable by anyone who appreciates Tolkien parodies. but “I have little musical knowledge. Tolkien was immensely ﬂattered. has some effective dramatic
power. before the
huge boom of interest in his work. This was apparently the most popular part of the album. complete with crowd noises. In 1964 he asked Tolkien for permission to compose an
overture based on The Hobbit. an opera of Dickens’s Christmas Carol. which may have been for the best:
her compositions are mostly daunting. this recording. As a composer.
Tolkien plaintively added in his letter to Blyton.

but some
years ago it was recorded.
followed by more agonies in the brass and falling pizzicati in the strings. however. After an introductory horn
call taking the listener into this miniature kingdom. which they performed in a revue show titled “At the Drop of a Hat.” But Swann also had
a more serious side. and he is best known
for having written incidental music for the BBC television program Dr. he included
them in his stage performances and then recorded them as a song cycle
titled The Road Goes Ever On. has
156
. creepy theme on oboe and bassoon) and the Ring (a single held chord on trumpet. condensing Tolkien’s novel into 4∂
minutes of charming light orchestral music. the dragon guarding it. Bilbo the hobbit is
introduced with a jaunty. It is curious. Lewis’s Perelandra.
and became a lasting friend. Smaug. fewer know that Blyton actually did go ahead and
write his Hobbit Overture. He is then joined by Gandalf the wizard (muted trumpet) and Thorin
the dwarf (harp. followed by a reprise
of Bilbo’s jaunty theme and a simple cadence for a conclusion. and his death should be instantly recognizable in the form of a pizzicato string pluck as the fatal arrow is shot.43 With the exception of “Namárië. anywhere. and fewer still have ever heard it. He specialized in music for schools. and having set several of Tolkien’s
poems to music and received Tolkien’s permission to do so. written in collaboration with Michael Flanders. that so far as I have heard. he loved The Lord of the Rings. no one else. with cymbals). A little traveling
music gets them quickly to Gollum (a stiff. It is a colorful little piece reminiscent in musical terms of some of the lighter cartoonish illustrations that artists have provided for the book.S.Middle-earth Minstrel
all formidable. He had written an opera based on C. The
plot immediately jumps to Thrór’s treasure (a stately brass theme. modern art songs with piano. 1965. is represented by abrupt
tutti chords and trombone glissandi. Many have read Tolkien’s letter to Blyton in his published correspondence.
Who in the 1970s.42
Blyton miniaturizes The Hobbit.
Another composer came into Tolkien’s life the year after Blyton. the instrument he plays in the book). extended
to some length).” Swann
made no claims to be writing authentic Middle-earth music: these are his
artistic interpretations in his style. Donald Swann was a pianist and composer
who had become noted for his intelligently witty songs about zoo animals
and such. skipping theme on solo winds and later on cellos.
The work concludes with an extended happy ending: the treasure theme
and the dwarves’ traveling music are counterpointed.

including Bombadil’s doggerel. This is almost literally true: every recorded Tolkien song cycle that
I have ever actually heard has a setting of at least one of the several variants of “The Road Goes Ever On.Liquid Tolkien (Bratman)
attempted to write Elvish songs that. a genre of verse with quite different aesthetic needs.47 But the very qualities of simplicity and plainness that give his verse a dubious reputation as high-literary poetry are its
virtues as song lyrics.” and “In Western Lands.” “The Stone Troll. and there is a well-known movie that found room
for about thirty seconds of it in its tightly compressed space of ten hours. for instance constructing an elaborate preface to The Adventures of Tom Bombadil excusing the
contents as simple hobbit doggerel collected solely for scholarly interest. But there are many other poems
for a sampler to choose from.
Swann’s song cycle has never gotten quite the attention it deserves. like Swann’s “Namárië.45 Even today there is a
beginners’ guide to The Lord of the Rings which advises easily-bored readers to skip the poetry. and been received very well.
most of the poems from both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.” is the one that invariably turns up in anyone’s collection of Tolkien
songs. The Tolkien Ensemble.
Of all Tolkien’s poems. is by a Canadian named James Stark. The most musically sophisticated Tolkien setting I have heard since
Swann’s. to suit a wide variety of
tastes. in much better performances.
There is a wide variety of settings available. have at least
one musical setting. and are sensitively and expressively arranged. After “The Road Goes Ever On. and recorded. and the most like his.46
Tolkien made no claims for his own poetry’s quality.” the most popular
are “I Sit Beside the Fire and Think. a group from Denmark.” sound like
Gregorian chant. “The Road Goes Ever
On. who
157
. Swann’s title song. Swann has actually written
a sophisticated art song cycle in which the individual songs are integrated
into a larger whole. fastidious style.
partly because its one recording is in a reserved. Even excluding their work.
This is actually quite remarkable.44 It has
been performed live at a couple of Mythopoeic Conferences. Tolkien’s poetry has never been
rated highly by reviewers of The Lord of the Rings. has conscientiously recorded a version of every poem from The Lord
of the Rings. and
at least ten of the sixteen in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. at least ﬁve times.
not for any literary merit.” all of which have been set.” It might not be all that boring to hear
them in sequence: they are all different. despite the clear directive from the author that this is
what he thinks Elvish music sounds like.

an Italian who sings in his native language.
If Brocelïande and the Hobbitons are hobbits in ethos. an American hillbilly twang creeping in to their setting of “Man in the Moon Stayed
Up Too Late” is an appropriate accent.” These gentlehobbits began belting out their settings of hobbit and goblin songs at top
volume during parties at Tolkien conventions. the Danish group.51
Like Brocelïande’s. and eventually they preserved them on disc. set every poem in The Lord of the
Rings. A box set re-release arranged all the songs in the order that their
words appear in the book. The song of Beren and Lúthien as a clas-
158
. the better they are. their work has been popular at Mythopoeic Conferences.Middle-earth Minstrel
accompanies himself on harp.50
And the most seriously authentic setting of hobbit songs is by the
American folk/early music band Brocelïande. the Ensemble’s
composers. The Tolkien Ensemble. some other
groups are elves. many of them penned by the late fantasy author Marion Zimmer Bradley. The group includes
both conservatory students and folk-music performers. his is an intelligent and thoughtful song cycle
with intricate structures and recurring motifs. Two of the albums were made in collaboration with
actor Christopher Lee. the Tolkien Ensemble’s approach is formed from
an effective combination of folk and classical music. Like Swann’s song cycle.
And the melodies.49
The most genuinely hobbitic setting is from The Hobbitons. In the course of this project. who recites some non-musical poems and impersonates Treebeard half rhythmically talking and half singing. are both
sturdy and delightful. but lacks variety. The Hobbitons are the opposite of James Stark: the
more bumptious they get. have created
some of the most atmospheric Tolkien settings on disc in four albums
released over a decade. and sung by her on occasion in the 1970s. and their work
mixes the two styles in comfort. It is extremely attractive wallpaper music. the
singing group of the Dutch Tolkien Society “Unquendor.
with an ambient orchestra lurking in the background. He accompanies himself on guitar. As discussed above.48 The most new-agey setting I know is by Giuseppe Festa. Brocelïande’s characteristic blend
of Anglo-American folk with medieval and Renaissance style seems a perfect mixture for capturing Tolkien’s spirit. Caspar Reiff and Peter Hall. even the bumptious hobbit
songs. all the songs
sound like fastidious drawing-room ballads. à la Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins. especially the spirit of hobbits.

they come up with a setting of “In Western Lands” that sounds incongruously cheerful. Unlike Brocelïande’s early music approach.
it is a truly arresting version. so far as I know. They do hobbit songs as well. An ethereal air of wistfulness pervades all their work. but
if anything it is slightly post-minimalist with a hint of rock. This was undoubtedly because it was just about the
159
. which
seemed to me to have fairly weak.Liquid Tolkien (Bratman)
sical art song sits easily next to hobbit folk music with guitar. Despite the generally somber tone. The ﬁrst of these to hit disc
was a Swedish rock organist named Bo Hansson in 1972 with Music Inspired
by Lord of the Rings. to be the ﬁnest settings of
Tolkien yet. and makes their Elven music
shine. Although the words are difﬁcult to understand without a text. At one time it seemed that every Tolkien fan had a
copy of this record. Some consider their two albums. presented with creepy rising intensity and
concluding with a snarling rendition of the ﬁnal verse. overly chromatic melodic lines.52
After the songwriters came what perhaps could be called the ambient musicians. and their third album has a lot of ruminative
string orchestra music reminiscent of Peteris Vasks or Arvo Pärt. released in France. unimaginatively-titled suites with
movements depicting places in Middle-earth. too much
of the same accompaniment style of harp arpeggios.
the only setting of the poem “Shadow-bride” from The Adventures of Tom
Bombadil. but the album’s most outstanding track is. The meeting of hobbit
and elf comes out best in the last track of their third album. the same too closelymiked oboe. the rhymes of Bombadil. the Ensemble’s classical orientation is
Nordic post-modernist. as
in the book’s last chapter.
Caprice’s second album is mostly by the same vocalist.
A Russian group called Caprice is more classically-oriented still. I was less impressed with their ﬁrst album. and the same female voice singing in English with a Russian
accent so thick you could use it to protect yourself from Siberian wolves
in winter. that makes the poem
sound as if it might have been written by Neil Gaiman. pop composers who write mood music perhaps intended
to be played in the background as one reads the book. but it is a much
more imaginatively arranged work. in which. Frodo’s walking song meets an Elvish hymn to
Elbereth. It is usually in the
form of vaguely Celtic or new-age. Elven Music. lightly with guitar with a kind of allpurpose tune that is sturdy enough also to serve surprisingly well for that
unpromising material.

which was a combination of the Colonel Bogey march and the worst of
Carl Stalling. Howard Shore’s music for the Peter Jackson ﬁlms — despite its pseudo–Celtic hobbit music. It is startlingly derivative of modern
British classical music of the generation immediately younger than Tolkien. sounded vaguely seedy. its use of cheap sequencing instead of harmonic growth to build tension.56
Some of Oliver’s settings. this survey returns to classical music. strangely. The rock keyboardist Rick Wakeman’s album Landscapes of Middle-earth alternates overdubbed synthesizers with a backbeat of noodling new-age piano music for the Elven lands
and. with somewhat mixed results. which was
evocative but. and this album is only a repackaging. If it does not seem to ﬁt with Tolkien.54 The appropriately-named David Arkenstone released Music Inspired by Middle-earth:
at times it sounds more like music inspired by the Middle East. there is a
good reason: the association is retroactive. due to the tinny organ. The vocal
music is largely for counter-tenor and boy sopranos. The theme music is stodgy — it sounds like
the march of the absent-minded professors — and could have been by any
number of the followers of Benjamin Britten or William Walton. not for the inherent merit of the music. Rohan. Wakeman wrote it with other
purposes in mind. and some of that is
straight out of the English choral tradition of which Hubert Parry’s World
War I era setting of William Blake’s Jerusalem is the banner work. including “Bilbo’s Last Song. which we left with
160
. and a partiality for bagpipes and harps.53
There have been many others since. as put together by a 1950s-vintage hack Broadway orchestrator.Middle-earth Minstrel
only one out there. mixed with
Celtic lounge music à la Howard Shore’s hobbit music.
The music to the BBC radio dramatization of 1981.” are covered on
the Hobbitons album. Oliver’s
setting of “Bilbo’s Last Song” (the only setting of this poem I know of ). imaginatively orchestrated and with some
quality to the melodies. and unlike so much recent music for epic ﬁlms it
is not an imitation of the brittle style of John Williams.
With that.
but quite moving in context.55
Music from ﬁlm adaptations of The Lord of the Rings is well-known
and needs little discussion here. with rich but static
harmonies. written by Stephen
Oliver. It strikes this listener as superior to Leonard Rosenman’s music for the Ralph Bakshi ﬁlm. and its general pedestrian
quality — is honest hackwork.
is particularly successful in the context of the close of the epic drama. is much more interesting.

was working on an opera of The Lord
of the Rings at the same time as Johanson’s.”60 The symphony is
161
. and some excerpts were performed at early Mythopoeic Conferences. and in his “Ainulindalë”
an open quotation from J. and has
received some attention in Tolkien fan circles. A Silmarillion-based opera by
Adam C. titled Leithian. have been inspired by The Lord
of the Rings. A number
of Tolkien-inspired works have this word on them.
was commissioned in the 1990s for a ballet based on The Lord of the Rings.
After “opera.58 Klein’s libretto is heavily
based on spoken narration. received a chamber performance in New
York in 2006 with the composer. One of them is by the man who by the turn of the 21st century had emerged as perhaps the world’s leading living symphonist. and Nordic composers. A Mythopoeic
Society member. the writer who had long hoped to
inspire a composer. at least two genuine symphonies. with more of the thematic development and harmonic counterpoint expected from a concert
symphony by the likes of Sibelius or Elgar. Tolkien’s work has been very popular in the Nordic countries.S.
7.Liquid Tolkien (Bratman)
Carey Blyton back in 1967. The massive popularity of The Lord of the Rings
makes it not surprising that Tolkien. Thea
Musgrave never composed her speculative Lord of the Rings opera. Klein.59
Besides these. but in
the mid 1970s a Swedish composer. which he titled “The Dreams of Gandalf.” no title in classical music carries more prestige than
that of “symphony. Bach. who had already shown an
interest in mythic literature by writing an opera inspired by the Kalevala. Op. Sven-Eric Johanson. but one reviewer of his works describes his vocal
style as “modern zany choral tonalism. as Beren. have occasionally set Tolkien. 71.” which does sound promising. Among others. and Jonathan Peters’ home-recorded suite in a similar ﬁlm-music
style also bears the title. It
has never been recorded. a professional tenor.
The plan never came off— though some years later he did recycle some
older music into a children’s ballet on The Hobbit— and Sallinen was left
with some themes and material that he reshaped into his Symphony No. Howard
Shore has given the title of symphony to an orchestral suite of his ﬁlm
music.J. Richard Wunder. his music mixes modern chromatic tonalism
with musical theatre à la Andrew Lloyd Webber. did write one. who often tend
towards an austere but tonal idiom. Sallinen.57
There have been several other Tolkien-based operas. has inspired many. the
Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen.” though the word is often used very loosely.

each opening with a long introduction. J.S.61 Although de Meij is Dutch. “is not a description of
the events in the novel but rather the documentation of a reading experience and a literary mood. de Meij
is more interested in creating a mood than telling a story. Three of his symphony’s ﬁve movements are character portraits. which. but tends to resist development. Sallinen’s musical idiom is more angular and dissonant than Sibelius’s. so.
for example.” after the chapter telling of
162
. His Gandalf is marked by a full.
like everyone from Bo Hansson to Enya. a composer whose name uses only letters between A and H — as.Middle-earth Minstrel
an episodic and stylistically eclectic single movement of some 25 minutes
which. in this case Lothlórien. The ﬁnale represents hobbits in general with what is known in British classical music terminology
as “The Big Tune. 1 for concert band (also arranged for symphony orchestra) by
Johan de Meij. rising theme — all the succeeding notes are in the octave above
the initial G. striving theme. something almost unheard of for a contemporary classical work. The GADAF motif
is a striving. Bach did this. he wrote GADAF instead. Bach — can write his name in musical notes and use it as a
theme.
But de Meij’s remaining movement (the fourth in playing order) does
tell a story: it is called “Journey in the Dark. and a number of other composers have also written their own names or other messages in musical notes this way. Musical notes are lettered from A to G. self-contained melody that is stolidly
repeated in both lively and somber colors. de Meij seems to hear as steamy. his music is very much in the
tradition and style of popular British concert band and symphonic music
by composers like Gustav Holst and Malcolm Arnold.” It is a catchy. It is the Symphony No. Gollum is depicted with a sinuous soprano
saxophone solo over a hopping accompaniment. but his work has a similar sweep and wide-scale vision. It ﬁrst appears in brass over rolling drums at the very opening of the symphony. and later breaks
into a fast ride on Shadowfax. Like Sallinen. and
in German a slightly different system is used that includes an H. Sallinen says in the recording’s liner notes.”
The only information I have on speciﬁc inspirations is the presence in
the work of a Gandalf motif. and as that includes two letters not
covered by musical notes. for
instance.
Another movement (the second in playing order) goes with the three character movements as a portrait of a place. Sallinen
wanted to write the name Gandalf.
The other symphony based on The Lord of the Rings is so popular that
it has been recorded at least four times since it was composed in 1987.

“whenever possible. but as mentioned above. climaxes with a mighty call of the Gandalf theme from the ﬁrst movement. His Gimli is an Irish-American Dwarf.
The Middle-earth suite of the American composer Craig Russell is a
very short work in nine tiny movements.
insectoid sound. Thea Musgrave showed an interest.
and then dies into a mournful coda. and with Shelob
as strings clicking their bows col legno against a hard surface. and his Gandalf
stands out in the open harmonies of Copland’s prairie. suddenly
races into a blazing accelerando when the battle on the Bridge begins. and in the
dramatic moments (“Seek for the sword that was broken” and the Ring
spell) it is strikingly like modern primitivism from Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre
du Printemps and Carl Orff ’s Carmina Burana. linked together by narrators intoning lengthy quotations from The
Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion to tell the story. begins with exceedingly quiet
slow tramping with occasional weird sounds in the background.64 The concluding
section of this 20-minute work represents the conﬂict between Morgoth
163
. whose
tone poem Beren and Lúthien. This
remarkable tone poem.
believes in stealing from the best. from the surprisingly early date of 1984. although the score
was published with illustrations by Patrick Wynne. giving a creepy. whose massive choral-orchestral work The Tale of the
Rings of Power has never been commercially recorded. which is all I know of it.63
One might expect that the more harmonically advanced composers
of our time would generally avoid supposedly retrogressive literature like
Tolkien’s.
aiming in the composer’s words to be. Excerpts presented on
a promotional tape. written for a student orchestra. nine minutes long. funny or
clever. the music is American pastorale.
Another distinctively American composer inspired by Tolkien is
Thomas Peterson. Peterson. more
akin to Howard Hanson or Randall Thompson than Copland.Liquid Tolkien (Bratman)
the journey through Moria towards the Bridge of Khazad-dûm.”62 Russell is a music professor at California Polytechnic University
who composes in the American nationalist tradition of Aaron Copland and
Henry Cowell. Russell has fun with
Gollum as growling “swallowing” sounds on double bass.
Another exception is the Canadian modernist composer Glenn Buhr. like Russell. In the slow movements.
was one of the ﬁrst works inspired by The Silmarillion. such as Galadriel’s hymn. reveal a massive work consisting of no fewer than 18 vocal or choral movements setting Tolkien
poems.

66 Lubomyr Melnyk is a Canadian pianist who specializes in composing and playing works
consisting of fast rolling arpeggios that set up standing overtones. His works. His lengthy
piano work Song of Galadriel is thus perhaps the closest yet to a Tolkieninspired minimalist composition. Swords of Power (referring
to Orcrist and Glamdring) for two percussionists. who
considered himself a connoisseur of classical music. The Call of Boromir as
a duet for horn and marimba.68
Conclusion
This chapter has described only a small sampling of the tremendously
wide variety of music that has been inspired by the works of Tolkien. a multi-movement Song of Middleearth for percussion ensemble with marimba solo. Warren Lewis.”65 He might
have said the same of Glenn Buhr. Buhr’s Lúthien
is no more beautiful than his Morgoth. McCarthy. as portrayed by timpani and harp respectively. include a setting for soprano and tenor of Treebeard’s song
of the Ent and Entwife.
has composed more works based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit than probably any other classical composer of his standing. Tolkien might have been more circumspect and said merely that it was not akin to his own inspiration. and the work as a whole is well-constructed. The orchestration is imaginative.. who has taught
at the Interlochen arts camp and at universities in the American Midwest. Buhr has
also set Aragorn’s song of Beren and Lúthien for voice and harp. once attended a performance of a modern string quartet which he called “perfectly agonizing
.
Other recent classical composers recommended by Chris Seeman
include Daniel McCarthy and Lubomyr Melnyk.Middle-earth Minstrel
and Lúthien.. An excerpt on Felice’s web site suggests that the depiction
of the opening chaos is somewhat more astringent than Felice’s usual style
of American Gebrauchtsmusik of the Hanson/Thompson school.67 Another modern classical work inspired
by Tolkien that has come to my attention is an orchestral Ainulindalë by
Frank Felice. though she is more lyrical.
in a sometimes jazz-inﬂuenced chromatic modern idiom but less harsh
than Buhr’s. but its
post-tonal harmonic approach leaves it melodically limited. a dark and brooding concert overture for orchestra titled Towers: Ascent of Orodruin. and Time Out of Mind: Six Tales of Middle-earth for piano. Several of these have been recorded.
164
. The
Inklings generally did not care for this kind of music. a very little more would I think have given me a toothache.

without the liner notes. E.
17. Letters. Birzer. 1974).g.R. Words may be completely rewritten. see also speciﬁcally Tolkien. Tolkien’s
The Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit (Flowinglass Music FM007. 1967). 2000).R. where would they have found crumhorns
and viols?
7. and if prehistoric Dwarves couldn’t have gotten clarinets.R. Tom Shippey. Tolkien. 1975. The J. ed. and expanded ed.
2. 345. 2006).
1981). Caedmon TC 1477.R. 102. 80.
15. DE.R.
13. 89.
6. or consistent pairings between them. J.: ISI.
(Boston: Houghton Mifﬂin. Tolkien. Tolkien Reads and Sings His The Hobbit
and The Fellowship of the Ring.R. Hammond.
e.
3. Tolkien (Indianapolis: Alpha. 2001.
5. Tolkien. but this does
not really solve the problem.
Notes
1.R.R. 89.R. Maud Karpeles
(London: Oxford University Press. As demonstrated in Cecil Sharp. ed. See Christina Scull and Wayne G. (Boston: Houghton Mifﬂin. Tolkien Audio Collection.
1965). 230. J. 43. vi. The Annotated Hobbit. Now available in a 4-CD set. Cecil Sharp. Anderson. Tolkien and
Donald Swann (Boston: Houghton Mifﬂin.R. Tolkien Companion & Guide (Boston: Houghton Mifﬂin. Foreword. as
Tolkien’s deeply inspirational works strike responses in musicians of all
kinds and in many places. 2nd ed.
12.
16.R. J. rock ’n’ roll.
4. Letters. Caedmon/Harper
Audio CD 101(4).
the crumhorn may be related to the clarinet but the sound is totally different.R.R. J.Liquid Tolkien (Bratman)
Much more has been written.R. Tolkien. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth (Wilmington. rev. Tolkien (Boston: Houghton Mifﬂin. Tolkien.
8. Cecil Sharp’s Collection of English Folk Songs. The Road to Middle-earth.
14. 399–402. (Boston:
Houghton Mifﬂin. 2003).R. 1932).R.
9. The J. J. It has been suggested that for clarinets we should read crumhorns. with liner notes by George
Sayer. The Starlit Jewel: Songs from J.
Letters. Originally released on an LP. in The Road Goes Ever On by J. Annotated Hobbit. 111. The Life and Work of J.R. The Lord of the Rings. Douglas A. Some critics have noted the Gregorian and therefore clerical nature of the Elves. 44. 173.
165
.” Brocelïande.R. Bradley J. Michael White. As “Merry Old Inn. 2002).g.R. 2nd ed.R. the
same words may be sung to totally different tunes. 2002). If Tolkien had meant crumhorn he could have written it.
10. Tolkien expressed irritation at various forms of jazz. 2002). Donald Swann. and much more will come in the future.R..
11. and one tune applied to several different sets of words. 1:219. Tolkien. The researcher seeks in vain if expecting standard or consistent versions of either the words or the music of English folk
songs. and even operetta impartially. 2:617. English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians (London: Oxford University Press. The Letters of J.R.

145–46.” The New Yorker. Water Bearer (Chrysalis 1211. 721. n.
35.
23. Tolkien.
translated by Natalia MacFarren (New York: Schirmer.E. 344. Klein and Thomas Peterson as segments of
works discussed below.
18. composed by Adam C. Martin. Chris Seeman. broadcast week of August 27. December 22.). 145. This writer has heard two choral-orchestral depictions of the Ainulindalë in a
classical idiom. 195. Both use narrators and present a relatively simple version of the
musical structure. “The Ring and the Rings: Wagner vs. Tolkien is here discussing
not Wagner at all. “Ramble On.
24. Harper-Scott.” in
Tolkien the Medievalist. in Elgar: An Anniversary Portrait. ed. “Lord of the Rings. 175–83. Ellen Kushner. “Middleearth. Modernist (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
166
.
36. The Lord of the Rings.asp?DAID=282. Contrary to a usual assumption. Seeman’s listings are meticulous in their inclusiveness. 1977). vocal score. Sturgis. Gerontius. George R. Letters. Diane Joy Baker has published various album reviews
in Mythprint starting in 1997. 306. 54–69.
25. The Tolkien Music List. introduction by Nicholas Kenyon (London: Continuum.
22. and include lyrics whenever possible. The Armageddon Rag (New York: Pocket. episode in Sound & Spirit.
but descriptive information on recordings tends to be limited. Shippey. is in The Lord of the Rings revealed as the given name of Bilbo’s
grandfather. J.com. 108–12.
26. 2003: 22–29. 2007). 1978).
19. Tolkien. Sally Oldﬁeld.
21.
29. Tolkien. 104–6. The Silmarillion (Boston: Houghton Mifﬂin. 1982). 2006.tolkien-music.Middle-earth Minstrel
17.R. Tolkien. He often applies the term “classical”
to music better described as electric folk or folk-inﬂuenced pop. Tolkien. but a mythological farrago in the mind of a critic. Letters. 1969).J.
647. NPR. libretto by Friedrich Kind.” Led Zeppelin II (Atlantic 82633. 1:496.com/
display_column. Led Zeppelin.
28. 2:617.
33. 1985).R. 2003).
31. 174. see Scull and Hammond. It is clear here and from his essay “On Fairy-Stories” that
Tolkien considered drama an art separate from literature. For Tolkien’s interactions with Armstrong.
34. J. Rock On!. Harper-Scott goes on to discuss Tolkienian eucatastrophe and dyscatastrophe in the context of the teleology of large-scale musical compositions by Beethoven and Mahler as well as Elgar.” http://www.d. 350. One recent example is Alex Ross.
30. http://www. Serenely conﬁdent assertions that Tolkien must have directly copied Wagner still
ﬁnd their way into print. The most thorough discussion of Tolkien’s difference from Wagner’s (and the Nazis’) approaches to mythic history is in Christine Chism.R. Letters. 45. 15–17. even from critics who should know better. Carl Maria von Weber. Amy H. One
speciﬁc consideration of “Elgar the Catholic” is by Stephen Hough. and the Aryan Nation: Myth and History in World War II. Warren Lewis. the Middle Ages.
27. Jane Chance (London: Routledge. a Latin name meaning “old man” which Tolkien had perhaps found
in Newman’s poem. 63–92. Edward Elgar. Der Freischütz.
32.popthought. The Old Took. Scull and Hammond.P. Many biographies and studies of Elgar discuss his personality and character.
20. 2006). Brothers and Friends (San Francisco: Harper and Row. Both here and in his commentary Seeman can be vague about classiﬁcation.

2005). discuss mostly poems from outside The Lord of the Rings. 1997). 2001).
067 303–2. Poems and Songs of Middle-earth. One notable exception to both — it is in The Lord of the Rings. Elven Music (Prikosnovénié PRIK048. At Dawn in Rivendell (L.
41.
Tolkien: Master of the Rings (Eagle Vision 37685. Songs from Middle-earth (Dutch Tolkien Society Unquendor
STEMRA PR001. Neil D.” in Tolkien and the Critics. Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings (Charisma CAS 1059. The Road Goes Ever
On: A Song Cycle (Boston: Houghton Mifﬂin. personal communication.R.R. Royal Ballet Sinfonia. Zimbardo [Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame
Press. 2002). Sheet music published as J. ca.tolkien-music.”
55. Donald Swann. “Tolkien’s Lyric Poetry. such as Joe R.
48. 1996). Journey of the Dunadan (Arion Records 7690-51111-120. 2000). Tolkien. Voci dalla Terra di Mezzo (Pongo Classica 2050. 350.
43. The CD label notes.
52.” http://www. The Hobbitons.R. in “The Poetry of Fantasy: Verse in The Lord of the
Rings.
47. Gavin Sutherland (White Line 2140. Mary Quella Kelly. 2001). 2002). 1967. Rick Wakeman.” Isaacs and Zimbardo 170–200. and Leaving Rivendell (Classico 675. 2001).
45. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from The Red
Book (Boston: Houghton Mifﬂin.
38.
54. 1967). Christopher. David Arkenstone.
which is necessary to follow its storyline. 2001). more
sophisticated articles.
2003). Hostetter (Westport. “Marillion Biography.com/songs/
blyton1.
39.html. “The titles
on this CD have been selected from and previously released on ‘The Seven Wonders Of
The World’ and ‘Heritage Suite’ performed by Rick Wakeman and the titles have been
re-titled for the present compilation. The book is The Rough Guide to The Lord of the Rings (London: Rough Guides.com/Marillion/Biography/
Chapter1.R. Bo Hansson. Dan’l Danehy-Oakes. Burton Raffel famously stated that “the trilogy’s poetry [shows] almost no independent literary merit” (“The Lord of the Rings as Literature.
49. The ﬁlm needs no identiﬁcation. 231).R. Caprice.
51.
50. ed. from British Light Overtures 3. The Evening of Ilúvatar’s
Children (Elven Music 2) (Prikosnovénié PRIK068. 2003).R. The original four Tolkien Ensemble albums are: An Evening at Rivendell (Classico 175.
42. 102. is not printed in the liner notes of this recording. 7–9. The Road Goes Ever On. but it may be found on Seeman’s website at http://www.
The Middle-earth Album (Arion Records SR1311. J. accompanying the DVD J.htm. Stark. originally on LP on J. Later.
46. few of which have
been set to music. Glass Hammer. 2000). 1:592. ed Verlyn Flieger and Carl F. 1989). treats the verse as purely functional. Letters.
Caedmon TC 1231. Carey Blyton. Music Inspired by Middle-earth (Neo Paciﬁca NP 3012.R. 1993). William Elvin (singer) and Donald
Swann (piano).
143–60. 1968]. Isaacs and Rose A.progfreaks. dir. 2000). 2003).
167
. Tolkien. and has
been set — discussed by Christopher is Aragorn’s linnod of Beren and Lúthien.G. James A. Re-released on CD inserted into a later edition of Tolkien and
Swann. undated. Giuseppe Festa.R. Scull and Hammond.A. Blyton’s description of the piece.
53.
44. CT: Greenwood.Liquid Tolkien (Bratman)
37. A Night in Rivendell (Classico 275. 1962). Tolkien and Donald Swann. The Road Goes Ever On (London: HarperCollins. The Hobbit.” in Tolkien’s Legendarium. 1972). Songs of Middle-earth (Prime Time 9201. Landscapes of Middle-earth. Tolkien.
40.

literature.K. and how it
has developed his own musical and literary mythological world. which
as illustrated below will demonstrate how his work is a unique new leaf
upon the Great Tree of the creative spirit.R.
171
.
and drama that have been of far reaching inﬂuence for S. Thoth has utilized the sub-creative methodology of J. Thoth.K. It will
focus speciﬁcally on the evolution of creativity in Thoth’s life. His life. Director Thoth
Introduction: The Creative Spark
As a one-man opera and sub-creator.Performance Art in a Tunnel:
A Musical Sub-Creator
in the Tradition of Tolkien
Anthony S.
2002. or watching Thoth. This chapter endeavors to explore
how S.”— Sarah Kernochan. S.R. the Academy Award winning
ﬁlm based on his life. listening
to his Solopera on CD. Thoth stands amongst those
who have inspired and gone before him.K.
Tolkien and has fashioned that understanding toward his work. music. and what he
refers to as his “death dance” are balanced methods that have brought forth
a mythological world. for which director and co-producer Sarah Kernochan
won her second Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject.
Thoth’s work can be experienced via a live prayformance. philosophy. Burdge
“[Thoth] is the living embodiment of human
potential. There are many disciplines of art.

and “sol” deﬁning sun. the hallowed hall of the Angel Tunnel in the very core of New York City’s Central Park.
channeler of divine worlds.” which means work. a solopera is much more than art. channeled by Thoth. healing ritual.”
a homonym for soul merged with “opera.
Thoth deﬁnes the term prayformance thus:
I perform and pray simultaneously. which can be equally
described as a form of universal prayer. The word was a gift. Solopera
is a term coined by Thoth to describe his work.
These terms succinctly describe a Thoth performance.
He said that to him it didn’t sound like I needed the letters “er. and purpose encapsulate him as a highly principled artist. I was telling that story to a friend who
learned English as a second language. which has led him to the discovery of an inner calm
that few ever achieve. which embodies a deep array of
operatic vocalizations. The
solopera is part vocalizing. monologue. theater.” meaning a dramatic performance put to music. and he said. Thoth’s immense improvisational range of talents is a broad expansion of his training as a classical violinist. urban shaman.” And it just struck me that that was a wonderful way of describing what I do. sacred dance.Middle-earth Minstrel
There are two recurring terms throughout this chapter that will be
utilized. 26].” I tried saying it in the new way. Someone asked me
what I was doing and I said I was praying and performing. berdache. and require some further clariﬁcation: Solopera and prayformance. healer and mythmaker. “It
sounds like you’re prayerforming. It comes from the preﬁx
“solo. a solopera is a combination of
meditation and prayer. and the plural form of “opus. alchemy. language
deconstruction. In this space. puzzle. and it worked. culture and
172
. raw
divine energy. and was very precise in his use of English. with
a strong focus on healing both personal and social divisions (Mewbourne
49).
Both terms are derived from and applicable to the work of Thoth. The prayformance contains the
objective truths at the core of all religions. According to
Thoth. “Sol.” meaning the work is performed alone. Now I
say I put the ray in performance [Simmons.
presence. His artistic power. completely detached from the
ego of a typical performance. cleanses and balances — unhindered
by the barriers of modern materialistic consumer thought. The tones of his vocal and instrumental range culminate within and resonate without. aerobics routine.
Thoth is New York’s own mystical conjurer. prayformance. all accompanied by solo violin and complex percussive rhythms. I loved the pun.

and drama emphasizing that
each individual creative act is a participation in something large. He sensed becoming limitless. as party to a creative continuity” (Glyer 222). he felt
high. helping him in a period
of isolation. training. he could experience Tolkien’s world fully.Performance Art in a Tunnel (Burdge)
society — an audience that will remain ever changed. Tolkien stated that his plan was to “leave scope for other
minds and hands wielding paint. the “death dance” is when a
person’s being.R. who will remain with Thoth his entire life. Tolkien’s methods of creating a believable secondary world were
that of sub-creation (a term coined by Tolkien in his essay “On Fairy Stories”). Lewis and J. The heroic journey of the artist and the subsequent
173
.R. Thoth pushes Tolkien’s plan for a “creative continuity” to new heights. According to Diana Pavlac Glyer in her
work. The Company They Keep: C. Sound and language. the “I am. Thoth’s ﬁrst sub-creation — the hero’s journey of an
anthropomorphic coffee bean — came to him intuitively.R. Thoth readily
admits that when he became so absorbed in this intuitive creation. who draw inspiration from those who
have gone before them.
Thoth’s ﬁrst creative spark came from learning that as isolated as he felt
as a being. and
grabbed anything in order to express it. Sub-creation refers to the subjective tools of the artist which Tolkien
attributes the source as being the divine act of creation as used by the Creator in manifesting our primary world. Thoth realized he
shared similar thoughts and principles concerning the intricacies of creation with Tolkien. Tolkien as Writers in
Community. is the sub-creative source.R. Tolkien. complex
and beautiful. elated: in the realm of epiphany. and music. Tolkien. According to Thoth. has
been J. Tolkien’s Middleearth transported Thoth into feeling he no longer was within our Primary
world. is a
nexus where the progress of Thoth’s life.S. claimed by some to be the origins of Creation
itself. work and death dance
is fulﬁlled and realized. author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The Angel Tunnel. artists are beings blessed
with the divine gift of creativity.
A primary inﬂuence. regardless of cultural or religious lenses of interpretation.
the familiar name for the hall beneath Bethesda Fountain Terrace.
According to the work and vision of Thoth.” aligns the bliss of its existence or its reason for
being with the moment of death of its physical body. These acts of sub-creation emanate
from the same source. opened Thoth’s eyes to the possibility of experiencing and
creating alternate realities.
After investigating and studying Tolkien’s works.

passive and neutral. When an awareness of this state of being is
realized. These steps consist of a pulse or release of energy directed
in a speciﬁc manner toward the expression of the work.” unlike the dramatic Shakespearean reference.
Each successive step toward the manifesting of the sub-created world
through music or literature is a step in the rhythm of the individual’s own
death dance. mythological world are expressions of the artist’s own life spark. which he has sought for himself. Each tool is personal to the artist and should be left to humanity’s
own individual learning and understanding of the creativity that inspires
every artist and their implementation. present
and future. Tolkien’s methodology laid the
foundation for us to discover the sub-creative tools possessed by all of
humanity. the creation of a believable secondary world manifested with the means and methods of the primary world
is an all-encompassing life’s work. then a perfected balance which is outside the realm of cultural.” is the creative mark left upon the world. The purpose and link to
artistic synchronization is that all are meant to unite creative sparks with
the Creator and Universe. or that contain the language of past. The secondary. Death is the largest
release of energy from the physical body. “Art. The means and methods of achieving
such a creation are so varied that they are impractical to categorically list
here.
political or religious censure. he is the culmination of all his ancestors. which reﬂect universal principles of
active. This paper need not digress into a discussion of the monumental impression Tolkien’s work has left upon the world. the ﬁnal step in leaving behind
a signiﬁcant sub-creative impression upon the global community.
Readers of this chapter already have an inkling that Tolkien’s creative work
has continued to exist beyond the ending of his own physical body. Contained within the artist is the essence
and harmonics of Creation. Tolkien’s
death dance would be the tales of hobbits. These uniquely structured processes should not be judged right
or wrong by an institution.
As Thoth readily states.
For artists like Tolkien and Thoth. which exists in the mind and spirit of the artist. “To be”
is a term in union with a divine principal that has a strong focus on healing personal and social divisions. begins to unfold. all
174
. It is the harmony of these modes. is for Thoth the
ultimate balanced state of being. elves and wizards through all
the ages of his Middle-earth.Middle-earth Minstrel
creation. the open doorways to worlds
waiting to be unveiled.
“To be.” or “death dance. provided that the artist is true to his or her
purpose as a sub-creator.

Yet the experience is not as limited
to the external enjoyment of the work. Each of these layers within the inspired parts of the
sub-creator’s world should not dominate one over the other. as participants within the world.
175
. Thoth consciously lets
go of attachments.
seeing many layers of interpretation. and ego with each prayformance.
A unique quality and recurring theme Thoth ﬁnds in the masters who
have inspired him — from Tolkien to Bartók. The artist
carefully orchestrates each thematic layer into a unique symphony of mythical tones. As observers of a secondary world. The viewpoints of critical interpretation are not the work. nor
a sum of their inspired parts. but a wholeness achieved by mastery and union of both male
and female principles. So much of what Westerners experience is mediated through technology. Thoth becomes a messenger of unity (Mewborne 49). Thoth becomes an undeniable authentic voice for
transcending socially-constructed polarities. preferring instead one overt energy over another. many angles to understand the work
on different levels. methods and energies dormant and underutilized. experiencing it in original ways.
Thoth consistently receives guidance and inspiration from them. readers must
be fully invested in the artistic world they explore.Performance Art in a Tunnel (Burdge)
people and all cultures brought forth by the utilization of not one dominant energy. seeing or reading of the work. Wagner to Hendrix — is the
hearing. This lack of awareness thereby
leaves worlds. or yin and yang. because he
feels they block the ﬂow of creative ancestral guidance (Mewborne 48). from musical recordings to cinema to TV to media.
At the heart of Tolkien’s love of story is his equal if not higher love
of language. Thoth believes that a society that
depends upon technology actually enslaves the will of the people. By unifying these ancestral
ethnic voices. Linguistic patterns affected him emotionally. judgments. Most people do not utilize this
union. egos and insecurities. of paramount central importance to Thoth’s work is the hearing and expressing of his ancestral voices. In the
archaic traditions of healing and storytelling. The understanding comes internally. like color or
music (Carpenter 212). This technology is not necessarily an honest
measure that the society is necessarily better or more advanced than another. thereby leaving behind
all contemporary attachments. without consciously being aware of what they are doing. and the Internet. in turn
harboring material desires. By adhering to these principles.
Western society lives within a realm that prefers comfortable labels
and preprogrammed thought processes.

this precise element of the entirety of
the work. which help them become enveloped in his secondary sub-created world. akin to Tolkien’s universal applicability. it is quite possible that primitive societies are more advanced than
those in the Western or “modern” world because of their environmental
concerns and shamanic traditions. Thoth’s work envelops a plethora of identifying symbols. and his argument concerning the mortality of man. The artist’s journey takes the initiate
beyond the limitations set by society and mass media placed upon creative
thought. which then would not hold the observer
back by what is not understood. but to ﬂow
throughout knowing the entirety. which serves to only undermine the
whole. but intentionally in revised drafts (Carpenter 172).
In the opinion of this author. has been an issue of great debate with Tolkien’s
work. Tolkien felt at a certain point that he ceased
to invent. or ﬁltered through as messages from Tolkien’s own ancestral
voices. implying that another force wrote through him: that he was the
chosen instrument for the writing of the tales (Carpenter 211 –212). without thinking so
at ﬁrst. In this regard Thoth’s work. The
tales of Middle-earth.
Unfortunately. This statement
stands at the center of a large body of religious fervor bound with analysis
and deconstruction of Tolkien’s work. This is where
176
. The true experience of the sub-created world would not be to become trapped within
the minor notes. Tolkien’s comments show that there was no intended
message. yet adheres to none: his unique work and sub-created world
illuminates and honors aspects of world culture and myths. This debate has originated from a statement from Tolkien’s letter
that The Lord of the Rings is a deeply Catholic work. all of which are capable of supporting
sub-creation. that his intent was indeed a course in linguistic aesthetic. whether received as a direct communication from
the Creator. becomes a refreshing antidote to our preprocessed techno-centric
world (Mewborne 48). the standards of a technologically-based culture do not
provide the tools to fully grasp a created work and world such as those
presented by Tolkien or Thoth.Middle-earth Minstrel
In fact. or to identify with select parts of the whole. This
exercise is then coupled with observations of nature. the applicability of the whole versus the deconstruction of a single thread from the tapestry. Attendees at Thoth’s prayformances may see certain things they
are able to identify with. wrote themselves through his mind as sub-creator. The religious strand within the tapestry of Tolkien’s epic is mistaken for the whole.

i. The observations of Tolkien’s direct
critics. Furthermore. Is he then communing with his “characters” as they were revealed
to him? How would Tolkien know to say that the power of Faerie is. For Thoth. which
would make Tolkien the vessel and messenger of the stories he received
and transmitted (Carpenter 189). the stories then become
part of Tolkien’s imaginative landscape during his writing. The universal truths present in Tolkien’s work broaden his
mythological world beyond the scope of Lewis’ Christian allegory. the whole shape of religion
177
. as cited previously.S. he would have had direct references similar to those utilized in C. historical. in
part. and an adherent of that faith. ethnic knowledge but a product from the direct union with the Creator and the natural world.
The myriad dogmatic analyses of Narnia presents a belief that to
know the work of Lewis. Tolkien intentionally left out any such allegory (Carpenter 174).e. These same adherents may also ignore the fact that his theories of
sub-creation and entering Faërie can be seen as heretical to the institution
of his faith. Numerous parallel
examples of correlations within Tolkien’s work have been cited throughout academia. mythical not allegorical (Carpenter 174). Implementing the tools of storytelling.
Tolkien realized a clash was present between “literary” technique and
the fascination of elaborating in detail an imaginary mythical age. What does this suggest? Tolkien states. do a great disservice to the overall understanding of Tolkien’s
unique writing. one must be familiar with the Christian mindset. those not directly commenting on Tolkien’s Catholicism. Galadriel as Virgin Mary. both artists have transformed themselves into divine messengers
for the transmission of stories.
If Tolkien intended his work to be a one-to-one distillation of his
Catholic religion. Aragorn
(or Frodo or Gandalf ) as Christ.
that parts of his work were revealed through him than by him. the communion with the natural world unless he himself had experienced it ﬁrst hand? This is where his faith may have been problematic for
him. The stories
become not only the product of his geographical.Performance Art in a Tunnel (Burdge)
Thoth and Tolkien share methodology. Lembas as Eucharist. These examples. Micheala Baltasar encapsulated this best by stating: “There
are no exact links to prove any of these connections true and deﬁnite”
(Chance 21). has led
some to believe that he struggled within the conﬁnes of his religious framework. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia or Space Trilog y. in the opinion of this
author.

I took the name because it symbolized an important point in my
spiritual development when I transited from Greece (Hermes) to Africa
(Thoth).
Each of the major religions presents itself as the “chosen faith. A standard
interpretation for a work does an injustice to an audience outside the focus
of that particular interpretive vision. rewarding understanding of
the work. This principle
is applicable to all beings. it is the reverse.
then they are able to control the very face of how people build their worlds. Thoth’s work cannot be labeled as
one standard or another. becoming a descendant of the world
community. wisdom.
Awakening and Development
Born to an interracial couple during a time of racial turmoil in the
1950s. His reasoning for this was “Thoth was a high priest of
ancient Egypt and the deity of scribes.” An individual’s interpretation of these works holds greater meaning for their audiences. intellect. The universal creativity of Tolkien and Thoth instills their audience with the ability to establish wholly new lands of their own devising.
When Thoth was younger. he was
then open to receive the gifts of energy from his ancestors. The energy this incorporates emanates throughout knowledge. Thoth found that by
accepting who he was. Stephen Kaufman would later change his name to “Thoth” after
graduating from San Francisco State University with a Comparative Literature degree. If in an institution one can control that perception. and all races.
the opposite of religion’s “correct behavior. Accepting this has
lead Thoth to an interconnectivity of his family line to that of all world
nationalities. vision and beliefs. For Tolkien and Thoth. his own heritage and manifested reality.Middle-earth Minstrel
has to do with controlling the way someone else perceives the connected
energies of all things. By classifying Tolkien or Thoth’s work under a particular interpretive umbrella. wisdom. all beings. depressed by the racial oppression his fam-
178
. Perhaps this lends to the worldwide popularity of Tolkien’s work. Tolkien’s own faith may be seen as at the foundation of his work.” As a being of mixed ancestral heritage. communication and mathematics.” yet are at
each other’s proverbial throats.
we do not lend to a stronger individualized. but it appears he purposefully designed his work to be
applicable to people outside of his faith no matter where they live.

Africa. because it’s difﬁcult for us to see it. At the time. while his father. Myths offer a reﬂective way of perceiving
the now.K.
Thoth’s mother.
known primarily as a Russian Jew was also from a Romanian gypsy descent. George Kaufman. Hermes. The harshness of reality helps the artist give way to a myth
of his own devising. a statement from Tolkien
paralleled Thoth’s desire to seek out the mythological in life. a Harlem-born Juilliard graduate. The manifestation of their children through that love
made Thoth and his two sisters kind to people in the world. She performed with the
American Symphony Orchestra. was born of ancestry from Barbados. Elayne Jones. The
energy against the relationship between Thoth’s parents during this time
of racial turmoil was strong.. but became a timpanist. a mentor encouraged Thoth to look into mythology as
a way to develop the Self. mythology culminated around Thoth’s
personal identiﬁcation with the ﬂeet-footed god of communication. and was the ﬁrst African-American to play
on both the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphonies.
In 2001 Thoth was quoted in The Village Voice as saying: “What I
am doing is myth-making.K. In 1951
Tolkien wrote to Milton Waldman explaining that the mythological in stories must echo the essentials spiritual truth (or fault) not depicted in overtly
known forms of the “real” world (Carpenter 144). It gives us an objective viewpoint” (Andrews 75). Thoth wears the mantel of
messenger.Performance Art in a Tunnel (Burdge)
ily had endured. having the inner knowledge from
divine storytellers Hermes and Thoth.. originally wished to play the violin. making their own love and energy together
that much stronger. She ultimately
sued the San Francisco Symphony because of racial discrimination. that individuals
should set these difﬁculties into a mythological context thereby allowing
the artist to overcome a variety of emotional anxieties. S. which is a divine role for the conveyance of truth through the
chosen medium of the artist. yet this did
179
.
he was able to understand Tolkien’s example as a way to achieve a better
understanding of humanity’s problematic experiences. Scotland.. S. and Carib Indian. This concept can
be seen in Tolkien’s scenes of the Dead Marshes in relation to his own war
experiences. As Thoth absorbed this. By adapting these spiritual values. Several years earlier. a kettle drum player. Thoth found
Hermes to be the Egyptian “Thoth” and realized he himself bore the same
mantle.
Jones. During the course of studying his African ancestry.
which she later left when her son was in his early twenties.

Only in recent years has Thoth no longer taken responsibility for his family’s dissolution. Thoth felt oppressed from these
societal demands on his family. its origins were
unknown to him. represent. bigotry. he could experience Tolkien’s world fully
and in so doing. the ﬁrst creative spark came from learning that
as isolated as he felt as a being. fulﬁlling a leftover childhood desire. or walking on
the street. found
within his own parents’ social division. There was a violin in the family. These moments of oppression and societal demands upon himself and family sparked Thoth’s isolation from the
rest of the world.
memories abound of this time when the family was the focus of racial
hatred. Unfortunately. After his ﬁrst story. George and Elayne
later separated (this is further elaborated upon in a discussion by Thoth
and Elayne Jones in the ﬁlm Thoth). He found the violin
to be the most soulful instrument in existence.
his mother asked him what kind of instrument he wished to play.Middle-earth Minstrel
not ease their individual burdens. he had a
dream of receiving a violin. exploring his love of creative writing and his
musical training in the violin. Before the Civil Rights movement.
As previously stated.
After several childhood attempts to learn the piano in their basement. Thoth was emotionally devastated during an already troubling time from the separation
of his parents. he began
his internal private journey. It had
occurred to him that either the night before or earlier that day. He has broken the emotional ties to what these messages. Through his self-realizations he has
broadened his connectedness to the whole planet via his diverse ancestry
(Mewbourne 49). Middle-earth possessed the power to transport him into
180
. During this period of
oppression and isolation Thoth turned to honing his talents. This isolation gestated into an internalized hatred of himself. Thoth felt that his mother was perhaps. name calling and threats while in their car. due to conﬂicting work schedules. nor does he internalize the hate-ﬁlled messages of a society not inclined to have accountability for their own hateful
actions. Thoth has immensely
changed his internal core reality. and he used that until another was bought for him to
play. in understanding his mixed heritage. With his taking up of the violin. At the age of ten. and he immediately answered that that was
what he wished to play. In this early point in his life. investing his entire being into the art of subcreation. in part. the heroic journey of
the coffee bean was dismissed and rejected by a school teacher.

Being drawn to Tolkien’s different maps. Both artists — constant
“nigglers”— also shared a penchant for accuracy and perfection. Thoth identiﬁed
with Niggle. where he found
very powerful and healing tools. Being so attracted
to this tale. The story of the
coffee bean came before any inﬂuence or inspiration from Tolkien: his ﬁrst
sub-creation came to him instinctively. and
eventually paints a tree attached to these leaves on a large canvas with a
world beyond. Of this prenatal development Thoth happily
181
. glossaries and other areas. This tale helped Thoth’s creative process grow immensely. Hendrix for explosive virtuosity. readily
admitting this is where his imagination began to form. She ﬁrst put
rhythm into his body as she played the drums while carrying him through
her pregnancy. This would not have begun without his mother. This niggling pushes the process
of sub-creation beyond the canvas of the imagination into a world without boundaries. Thoth realized he shared similar thoughts and principles concerning the intricacies of creation with Tolkien. He read
The Hobbit repeatedly. as experienced by Niggle. Wagner
for drama.
At this time. even in
matters that seem unimportant to most.
Being born to a drummer. Callas for vocal drama. Ellington for swing. as it was
Tolkien’s own commentary about the sub-creative process. New landscapes grew and ﬂowered in
his mind’s eye. which later helped him seek out his own melodic pattern. especially Leaf by Niggle. Not as well known as Tolkien’s other works. He fully invested his time
and love into Tolkien’s chronologies. his love for Tolkien’s stories continued to grow as he discovered the appendices to The Lord of the Rings.Performance Art in a Tunnel (Burdge)
feeling as if he no longer was within our Primary world. his own very imaginative stories spiraled into existence out of this love of Tolkien. Ravel for tonal color.
Leaf by Niggle is the tale of a painter who painstakingly paints leaves. Thoth investigated Tolkien’s work further. Parker for freedom. Reading Tolkien was a safe haven compared to
being punished for expressing his imagination in school. which he is later able to explore with his neighbor and family. and Bartók for
everything. Thoth admits helped him “ﬁnd my rhythmic
center” (Simmons 25). he was fully investing himself into the works of musical greats: Bach for improvisation. a being of mixed vices. Yma Sumac for vocal range. virtues and qualities (Carpenter 321). Thoth knew he had to create in his own voice immediately.
The underlying discourse on Tolkien’s creative process in Leaf by Niggle
fueled Thoth’s own journey into the sub-creative act.

Thoth habitually heard these structures of rhythm. a friend of Elayne’s who played in various orchestras
together with her. won the Naumberg Prize. Thoth realized that the traditional way of playing the violin
was too sedentary for him. attended the Juilliard School of the Arts. since his own father had been gone for some
time. He decided that would change. born in New
York City in 1914. and he now realizes
that bass is the ﬁrst connection between not communicating and creating. also a graduate of Juilliard. as a child. under Arturo Toscanini.
it’s so difﬁcult to play the violin and to play the music that has been written
requires a huge amount of practice to get all the notes right.” which is a testimony to
Thoth’s own growing talents.Middle-earth Minstrel
remarked that: “They are now discovering that the womb is a receptor for
information before the child comes out into the world. it’s very hard to improvise. to instruct her son.” In speaking with Thoth. During his life Glickman. Rhythm
is broken up into a very mathematical formula that one memorizes and repro-
182
. Thoth also admitted not to have practiced
a lot. and was
also a father ﬁgure for him.S. energetic child. he can only
imagine what it would have been like if he had applied himself more completely:
I would have been a classical soloist or member of a symphony orchestra and
would have never had done this.
The Associate Concert Master of the American Symphony Orchestra was Mara Dvonch. Glickman didn’t take many students. and language is born.
meaning that when sound is created. rhythm ensues. Mara became
Concert Master of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and soon moved. concertmaster of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. was born in Russia and brought to
the U. That would have precluded me from seeking an alternate way of using the instrument. At the age of 14 Glickman had won a scholarship to
the Paris Conservatory of Music and was awarded ﬁrst prize for music in
1924. and she became his ﬁrst teacher. your whole mindset is geared toward the memorizing of this number that represents this position on the instrument. and ﬁrst violinist of the WQXR String Quartet for 25 years. Thoth states of Glickman. but “was still gaining ground.
His mother called on another friend.” During gestation.
“Students had to be ready to study with him.
Being a rambunctious. Dvonch. Previn and Beecham. was assistant
concertmaster for the NBC Orchestra. Classical music is so stultifying.
Glickman. Harry Glickman. Steinberg. and learning the basics of the violin from her. Once you’re doing
it. and played under Stokowski.
Glickman was the most inﬂuential violin teacher of Thoth’s life.

Thoth soon moved to San Francisco with his mother after she
received an offer to be a part of the symphony of the San Francisco Opera. melodious sense coupled with his fondness of asymmetrical dance rhythms inspired Thoth’s own early compositions.Performance Art in a Tunnel (Burdge)
duces in front of an audience. This was also in response to his
growing difﬁculty and disillusionment with classical music. Thoth also began his study of music
with the piano. and knew that
he was not going to be a soloist (thinking that he was too undisciplined
for such a career). whereas classical musicians are not like that: everything is numerical and measured. Bartók learned
to play the piano early. which seemed
very limiting to him. Whereas.” In turn he abandoned classical study in favor of “emanating the perfection of the moment” (Andrews 75). Since Thoth had never had a vocal coach
or formal vocal training. the least inﬂuential of his teachers.
Both Thoth and Bartók share similar traits in early musical development. classicism and modernism. it
makes it almost unthinkable. which
were reminiscent of Bartók. Yet too much technique makes that impossible also. Bartók’s synthesis of folk music. but that is not possible without a certain
amount of technique.
As he passed into his early adult years.
After graduating from LaGuardia High School of the Arts in Manhattan. This is basically what classical music is. which
was what his mother had wanted for him (Simmons 25).
just playing the instrument is about feeling the beat and hearing the sounds
and going to the sound without thinking about it.
as well as his harmonic.
It was at San Francisco State University where Thoth met violin instructor David Schneider. So now I use the ﬁngerboard just to feel around
it to express what I want. During the course
of instruction. his instinct was to improvise his music. Thoth played a wide range of classical music from
Tchaikovsky to Brahms to Mendelssohn to Bach to Mozart.
An inﬂuential musical counterpoint to Tolkien was Bartók. Instead. Thoth spent the
least amount of time studying with him.
Where Thoth admits to ﬁrst hearing rhythm in the womb. Thoth felt he would play for a symphony. This is what I want to do:
I go from here to here. he listened to Wagner and allowed various parts
183
. Like Bartók.
and is considered one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. The Hungarian and pianist was one of the founders of the ﬁeld of ethnomusicology. Thoth started looking for a
method for being more operatic. He grew to feel
that “playing music that is basically dead is a very limited way of expressing one’s self. I just do it.

“If you ask them to improvise around the one note they don’t know
what to do. because they’re so used to playing many notes .
based in the Festad — Thoth’s sub-created mythological world — was in
part inspired by Wagner’s Der Ring Des Nibelungen. Thoth’s three-act
mythological opera entitled The Herma: The Life and Land of Nular-in. it means more than thousands of notes played. 49]. In his own work. It’s not
possible with so many notes because one is worried about missing one” [Mewbourne.K. which can only be fully appreciated
ﬁrsthand. expressive way rather than exclusively or marginally. going beyond gender lines of tenor to a genuine soprano. So it’s most important to have a connection with how
to make that note real. one has to make every note have the fullest expression it can possibly have. Thoth began
to put his mythological worlds into operatic form.
In order to create music. one-dimensional
constructs of patriarchy and heterosexuality.” He says.” He cites Miles Davis as a master of the truth of one
note.
It was this one single carrying note that drew the author’s attention in
2003 while enjoying an ice cream in Central Park.. to resounding
bass. this concern with uniﬁed elements manifests itself as his emphasis
on “the one note. and classical musicians as examples of those focused on playing many
notes. Thoth believes tones are sacred. Thoth speaks about his music theory
to Denise Mewbourne in her enlightening work “S. Through
this expansion of expressive creativity the Festad was born.
For those who have never experienced a prayformance in either Central Park or through Thoth’s appearances elsewhere. Over ten minutes passed
before the then unfamiliar sound of Thoth was located. Thoth’s sound had radiated outward from the point where he
184
. Through the magic
of his voice. Thoth’s vocal range
stems from low chanting. After discovering Wagner. Thoth & the Power
of Presence”:
Musically.Middle-earth Minstrel
and pieces to groom him vocally. Thoth soon found
Wagner’s operas disappointing due to their Euro-centric.. and it doesn’t
really communicate what’s going on with your spirit at the moment. If one note can be real. “This is very important to my philosophy of music. sexual and cultural ancestors in a more
expansive. he is
liberating himself by removing inner obstructions which keep him from
hearing the voices of his ancestors. Thoth sought
to represent his diverse racial. Thoth is
a true adept at vocal sound and tone. to resonating Wagnerian tones. By vibrating himself with tonal
sound and projecting his voice so fully from the center of his being.

Thoth prefers to prayform without ampliﬁcation. The experience becomes fragmented and
out of synch. or vibrations from the Creator. diet. are everything the “I am” or seat of consciousness uses to increase energy and focus such as: food. which can ﬁne tune
humanity’s awareness of these vibrations and expand the conscious mind. stillness and most importantly our
physical body. and is
not true to what he wishes to nourish.
Power tools.
The cleansing tones of Thoth’s operatic vocal range are in part what
draw a myriad of people to his prayformances. Unencumbered by electrical
implements. manifest in the slow
moving particles called physical being.
natural supplements. vitamin and supplements. From such study. hallucinogenics. which are his main power tools to manifest his music. but also healing of the self and of the community.
With this knowledge. archaic singing and ecstatic dancing. diet. The magic of this was done without the use of ampliﬁcation. the creative venture of life spiraling from within outward. all-con-
185
. and the physical body
are almost obvious means by which can alter energy.
Stillness is the beginning of the artists death dance.
Upon recognition of this. the artist intuits the necessary healing tones that ﬂow
into the creative venture. Nutrients
in the form of supplements as well as physical activity are just as important as diet in increasing one’s energy. ultimately not allowing true bonding and healing with the
audience to take place (Mewbourne 49). Thoth utilizes. alongside the variety of
mythologies he was already studying. Food. he is then able to change the vibration wherever he passes
and not have the hum of an amp during moments of stillness. Food and a healthy
diet are essential power tools to create a strong physical form. the artist can inﬂuence not only the level of the
body’s vibratory output. and permeated that entire area of Central Park. Thoth understood
all people and all things emanate from the same source. These practices come from
Thoth absorbing himself in esoteric philosophies.
Thoth feels that heavy ampliﬁcation is greedy and power hungry. according to Thoth. although he is not
limited to. and feels that with electronic mediation people hear the
sound at slightly different times. This is why he further creates tones with the foot
drum and violin.
Thoth has strongly sought to sub-create a world that is completely
“enwombed” acoustically. Stillness is often something
feared and misunderstood in Western culture of mass marketed.Performance Art in a Tunnel (Burdge)
prayformed in the Angel Tunnel. The outward emanations of Creation. vitamins.

both for the individual and the
world. the mastery of his craft comes
from knowing and accepting death.
Another power tool mentioned.
in this case a god within the plant (McKenna. singing. became an obstacle in keeping a 9 to 5 job. His growing dreadlocks. If Thoth were to die in the next second. He soon found him-
186
. plants have been
used as an inﬂuential interface between brain/mind/body and spirit. shamans utilized psychoactive plants as communicative tools to interface with the spirit plane. growth
and destruction. to delve the well
expanding before him as deﬁned in his music. The importance of sub-creation
lies with its connectivity to the rhythmic patterns of the planet. these plants were integral to the healing rituals identifying and
extracting illnesses from a patient. natural hallucinogens illuminate the
dark cavernous depths of the creative mind. Through the use of natural hallucinogens. For millennia. Yet. aligned and affected by the cycles of the world
as he tunes his being into a living universe. Nor should
their mention be taken as blanket permission to be used without ritualized purpose or spiritual intent. Yet stillness is a conscious-altering power tool. are exceptionally
stimulating and should neither be disregarded or taken lightly. hallucinogenics.
perhaps one of the reasons shamans were also myth-makers and storytellers. Yet to fully manifest a subcreation through the moment of death. the mind’s eye can be trained and re-opened from what modernity
has denied it. XVIII).
It is through the culmination of all of these elements that Thoth’s
improvisational foundation rapidly blossomed. Thoth grew his hair as a
reﬂection of his desire to express himself more fully. dancing and spinning. is that through this practice. where people are surrounded by the cycles of life. In
addition. An added beneﬁt. he hopes to be prayforming. When left
with the still thoughts of one’s own mind. fully realized beings. These
views can then be seen as a divine revelation from a source outside the self. and comfortable with themselves if their life
was to end tomorrow? Both death and stillness are feared when they should
be embraced.
however. the artist’s intent must be pure. How many members of society can say that they will be fully
content. In order to receive a key to extended sight and see the true
forms of all things. as beautiful or horrible they may be. Past hopes and dashed memories come to the forefront of
the mind. The sub-creative act is an evolutionary ongoing process
and will always be for Thoth. most in our culture ﬁnd a terror looming.Middle-earth Minstrel
suming noise. The death dance is one of the truths
of this world.

In an earlier piece written by
N. By making enough money to survive
and pay for the maintenance of his art entirely through prayforming. The metal grates become his drums. It’s my temple.. It concretizes my work. when he is not spinning or leaping. and the dissolution
of the band. Everywhere I
go. Upon his return to New York. By adding singing and dancing to his repertoire.
Reﬂecting on his use of the tunnel to Nancy Ruhling in her piece. Maisak. Thoth soon became the percussive soul of the tunnel and park. Central Park’s
emanating. Using this found instrument..
world creation and destruction.
he added the bells and heavy-heeled sandals upon his ankles.
“Ancient God Plays Central Park” the tunnel taught him how to manifest
himself in a theater (Ruhling A53). The perfect drum for his prayformance was found in
a metal grate in the middle of the tunnel with the accompanying hollow
depths below. as a solo source
of his percussive beats. After a short time with a band.
Thoth began to live the mythology he was building. This allowed him the freedom to
experiment with various forms of dress and percussion with his feet and
dance techniques.
Ideally. This honed his sound and
talents. pulsating heart-song. everywhere I play. entitled “Loincloth Maestro” he states that: “The tunnel is
a magical place. he found himself playing in the BART
subway system. and on “walkabouts” throughout the parks. He refuses to allow the values of Western culture to
affect his ability to fully manifest his being and art. and
the sale of CDs and DVDs. he found the tunnel facing Bethesda Fountain in Central Park
appropriately nicknamed the “Angel Tunnel” because of the “Angel of the
Waters” statue that crowns the fountain.” The
reverberating rhythmic earthen drumbeat of Thoth’s dancing and pounding steps.
In speaking to Thoth about his life and the process of sub-creation. shaping his outward appearance along with his growing spirituality. Thoth sanctiﬁes the hall as an
the angelic violinist. Thoth has become the living embodiment of
human potential.. accompanied by his simultaneous singing and violin playing has made the tunnel. Thoth fell in love with the reverberating sound waves
of tunnels throughout the subway system. a realization has been brought to light that
187
.Performance Art in a Tunnel (Burdge)
self taking to the streets as a street performer. he would like to ﬁnd a stage with drums built into the ﬂoor so he
performs the bass drumbeats with his feet.C. and public
areas of the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m always looking for a spot like the tunnel.

and for artists in general. which he believes is the reality lived in.
he had to walk a tightrope. Whether it was the dramatic atonality of Bartók. For Tolkien. because social. the sub-creative
process entailed utilizing the tools given to us by the Creator. fashion. Thoth knew that this would be no modest
undertaking. which allows
each being to create as each is created. or reality TV
trumps the creativity of the writer.
because the body is no longer possessed.
Thoth believes he is manifesting his mythological world in an unusual
way. cultural and religious boundaries were an illusion. The beginning of this process to fully
manifest a universe is stillness. and that he had the ability to present a created world. fail to trust their own
vision and stay the course of true creation.
Tolkien had ﬁrst shown him alternate realities.
Equally. This is most important to Thoth as an artist. In a desire to create a world where everyone loves one
another.
Thoth states that when we break out of subjectivity then “death” occurs. to manifest believable secondary
worlds through the material of the primary world.
the tearing riffs of Hendrix. are good to one another and can ﬁnd their own bliss. celebrity lives. which began animating Thoth’s
own hero’s journey.Middle-earth Minstrel
indeed this is the path of true human evolution. the Flying Dutchman or valkyries of Wagner.
and at that point objectivity allows the individual to see all things clearly. In order “To be” fully. no longer needed as it slowly dissolves like the ringing of a note. thereby instilling a
distrust in the artist’s own divine visionary abilities. the latest trend in media.
because potential artists. Thoth
sought to perfect his sub-creative world through neutrality of being. with enormous talent. to trust his own vision.
World Creation and Destruction
Thoth continued to develop an awareness that the divine gift was the
ability to sub-create — to create and destroy worlds. Thoth uses spinning and
188
. Western society promotes a false vision of material wealth. a completely subjective way. After stillness. musician or artist. journeying alongside him still was Tolkien’s
beautifully woven heroic tales of fellowship. The illusion that money
and technology are benchmarks of progress toward human evolution traps
a people into believing that an iPod or cell phone is a symbol of power. which is the ultimate fall of humanity.

to create as he sought to do with the proper energy. intellect.. capable of sub-creating.. they are condemned to toxic lives of low awareness. Thoth found that by accepting who he
was. the public lives
189
. then he was open to
receive their gifts of energy. The enchanted mind or shamanic role is the only counterﬂow against a world that is fed purely on the
designs of Madison avenue.Performance Art in a Tunnel (Burdge)
dancing to manifest the sub-created reality within the context of a prayformance. The public has no history and no future. Thoth. sickeningly Orwellian.
Enchantment is lost with the multitude of intrusive distractions by a consumer culture. Not to know one’s true identity is to be a mad.. A pattern of interconnectivity within his family line
expands to all world nationalities. The people of primitive
societies were endowed with the ability to fully grasp their connectivity
to bird. society should look to the
spiritual enlightenment of “primitive” societies. and other forms of material gain. This
incorporates energy that emanates into realms of knowledge. of the Pentagon. And. A better measure of evolution and advancement could be how people in society manifest themselves as Christs or
messiahs. he came to a realization that a balance was necessary and the artist must be one who ﬁnds the
“Christ.” or Messiah of Self. his own ancestry.. Immersed in junk food. his own manifested reality. A believer that
humanity. disensouled thing —
a golem. For Tolkien this was the power of Faërie or enchantment. with every creative act through
prayforming and sub-creation. Thoth found his New York audience with their own various
mixed heritages able to identify with him on an ethnic level.
As a being of mixed heritage. To
become free from technological enslavement. This principle is applicable to all beings. rather than to the amassing of physical
wealth. trash media. and all of creation for that matter having emanated from the
same source. all beings. applies to the mass
of human beings now living in the high-tech industrial democracies.. “To be” fully. brings forth his ancestral knowledge and
incorporates this wisdom into his everyday life and rituals. beast and tree. and all races. Sedated
by the prescribed daily television ﬁx they are a living dead lost to all but the
act of consuming. indeed this image.
vision and spirituality. and cryptofascist politics.. creating a descendent of the world community. of the Fortune 500 corporations. Their
authenticity lies in their ability to obey and follow mass style changes that are
conveyed through the media. hierarchical advancement. an ability nearer primordial societies than our own (Tolkien 117).

political or religious
conditioning. it takes both male and female to
create life. the Creator then must
utilize both of these characteristics to bring forth the world and Creation.. If the initiate
stays balanced. Thoth’s neutral energy
has a positive effect that is very helpful and healing to each within the audience. Generally people stand on one side or the
other of polar opposites. This isn’t just metaphor. 254–265]. it
is really happening to us [McKenna.
190
. as in the case of procreation. this is the legacy of
imbalance between the sexes.. whether it is due to cultural. Thoth’s audience interacts in this process during a prayformance
as the energy is reﬂected through their own feelings. there can be an awakening to a new
awareness after years of having been subjected to the false and artiﬁcial
motivations of the Western World.
which then goes beyond religious principles. Western society can then begin to live
a highly renewed sense of connection to the greater world and universe. the petitioner connects to the All. this
allows people to move energy away from themselves thereby transforming
energy.
Thoth continues this ﬂow against the toxic vision presented to us by
the government and media by helping his audience ﬁnd tools to manifest
sub-created worlds.. Utilizing positive and negative polarities. The mainstream majority generally does not realize that they
are moving energy of the reverse spectrum to their intent. and balancing these archetypes? Thoth does not comprehend the notion of a singularly male god or a male dominant creator.Middle-earth Minstrel
in a golden moment created by a credit system which binds them ineluctably
to a web of illusions that is never critiqued. How would
it be possible to create any world without realizing the creator as a Male
and Female being. are refracted tones of light fractured from brilliance of the Creator (Tolkien 144). this is the terminal phase of a long descent into
meaninglessness and toxic existential confusion.
With this perspective. Tolkien clearly expresses
that the sub-creator. In order to fulﬁll the creative act a
balance of both masculine and feminine principles is necessary. the artist is able to move any type of creative
energy. and all living beings. and as beings within a divine construct.
Thoth ﬁnds the hermaphrodite a perfect metaphor of balance for all
creative beings and his personal truth. regardless of its polarity. This is the consequence of lack of partnership. In this manner. This is the ultimate consequence
of having broken off the symbiotic relationship with the Gaian matrix of the
planet. then the energy travels along with the focused intent.
Similarly.

the
artist seeks to express his personal vision of reality — a vision arising from
the roots of the unconscious and not dependent upon public consensus.
McKenna’s revival of archaic forms of being teaches humanity to reject
the designer states of consciousness programmed by big business and know
that by returning to the role of shaman humans can break this industrial
191
. held strong mystical powers and
were active healers. “If the
doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it
is. There has been some debate over
the validity of the term “berdache” because of the etymological connection with the Persian term “bardaj” which was used in reference to a male
prostitute or catamite. the
berdache was often a powerful and valued member of the community. yet the term “berdache” is but a term to
describe a particular being. and they have distinct gender and social roles
within a Native American tribe. but unfortunately the term
“shaman” has changed greatly in Western society.Performance Art in a Tunnel (Burdge)
These concepts clearly expressed by Thoth and Tolkien are akin to a
quote by William Blake utilized most expressly by Aldous Huxley. inﬁnite” (Huxley 1954). is the “berdache. Terence McKenna was the foremost
visionary scholar who re-ignited the role of the shaman as a symbol of
change and return toward an archaic understanding of this important term. often actively opposed to it (McKenna 18). The dress of the berdache is generally a mixture of
male and female clothing. which for the artist extends not only to his work.” and is no longer recognized as it once was. fortune-tellers. Many of them.
Up until his death in 2000.” an anthropological term.
in fact. which represents individuals often viewed as two-spirits
(male/female) inhabiting a single body.
In the same vein as a hermaphrodite. He
or she was of a third or perhaps even a fourth distinctly different gender. but
also to his very life. Through manipulation of the physical medium. divine
messengers and leaders (whether as a chieftain or matron).” a loving and respectable compliment. being as cliché as the
word/concept of “heaven.
He has many of these attributes. astronomers. One
of the ﬁrst places one should look for signs of modern shamanism is in
the artistic sphere. such as the term shaman. Rather than being shunned or hated.
Visionary artist Alex Grey once described Thoth as “an urban
shaman.
free from the ordinary conﬁnes of a strictly male or strictly female gender
box. perceived as warriors. This minor
detail of a berdache enlightens further unto the role of Thoth in society. medicine people.

Both the shaman and the berdache
192
. this is why the shaman is the
remote ancestor of the poet and artist.. he would
not “Be.
Thoth cannot be classiﬁed.Middle-earth Minstrel
web of illusion (McKenna 254). bringing one of the most archaic
of religious practices into a new context. Our need to feel part of the world seems
to demand that we express ourselves through creative activity.. Thoth prayforms as a healing for himself. is a dynamic connection into the totality of life on the planet
[McKenna 7. at its fullest
shamanism . Whether it is
through the language of the Festad.
Yet this is a lens of deﬁnition. for the supreme goal of the shaman is to
abandon his body and rise to heaven or descend into hell .. the shaman is a
specialist in the sacred.. and
technician of the sacred. By restating the role of shaman through
the eyes of McKenna. the importance of Thoth’s role in society can be
seen:
A reverence for and an immersion in the powers of language and communication are the basis of the shamanic path .. although he doesn’t make this claim himself.. or limited to either shaman or berdache.
yet he should be perceived as one who is “fully being.” He prayforms as a healing for the very much involved audience
as well.” and cannot be
classiﬁed wholly under the shamanic title.. With this energy Thoth is able to heal through his work as a shaman.. taking great pains through humility not to
prompt anyone into a pre-determined end result of his work. Thoth
is able to channel vital earth and cosmic-based energies into the community. a glimpse of insight from an authority
on the subject. He allows them to
discover this for themselves.
but through the tools of these ofﬁces he becomes an intermediary.
A shaman is one who has attained a vision of the beginnings and the endings of all things and who can communicate that vision ..
His statement “I heal through divine prayformance” echoes this sentiment. He has exponentially broadened the methodology of both these roles.. if he did not. and his work peers into the mystery of
language and embodies shamanic qualities and traditions.. 59]. able to abandon his body and undertake cosmic journeys “in the spirit” (in trance) . or ecstatic spinning and dancing as he
plays the violin communicating scenes from his mythological world. Thoth embodies a type of
shamanic connection to creation.. between the community and the numinous archetypal symbols of the collective unconscious.. The ultimate
wellsprings of this creativity are hidden in the mystery of language. but Thoth is not limited by it.

was discussed with Michael Simmons in the fall of 2002 for Fiddler Magazine:
At ﬁrst I found it difﬁcult to play violin and sing.
and then I improvise upon those motifs. both sides of his physical being to further his total balance. Western humans
have lost their sense of unity with the cosmos and with the transcendent
mystery within themselves. From the point of view of religious symbolism.
To fully express one’s own Truth a great work takes a long time.Performance Art in a Tunnel (Burdge)
understood that to heal one’s self. if
not a lifetime to perfect. My soloperas are both
composed and improvised. through symbolic death and resurrection.. not just the limited one-sided patriarchal
force that dominates our present culture. When I was growing up. aside from Thoth’s neutral approach.. signing
CDs with both hands to create a mirror image of the message — to the
larger aspects such having the world’s only double chin rest for his violin. If this were grasped by Western society. Much of this is
lost on the mundane materialistic Western culture. the sub-creating rituals would lend incredible information and assistance to the entire
world. Physically. and I can play even when I’m singing and dancing. so I never learned to hold the violin tightly under my chin. When you listen to the Soloperas. and the community around them. Not using a shoulder rest gave me
the freedom to explore other ways of holding he violin and now I can play the
violin every which way.
you immediately recognize Caguma and Nular-in from their basic motifs. he uses both hands.
193
. all
types of energies were utilized. from the smallest task — eating. Each of the characters has a motif.
my teacher never let me use a shoulder rest.
healing himself through continuously prayforming and sub-creating. as are the rituals of
ancient tribal traditions and their esoteric practices. Thoth has undergone a radical
change from his earlier roots.
and understanding of the connectivity of all things. healing. but
they change slightly every time I play [Simmons 25–26]. One of
the technical origins of this device. In
turn he provides aid for those attending a prayformance. medicines. Thoth stabilizes the principles of balance within
his creative world. I
can even play it left-handed. shaving. which helped. I begin my prayformance playing left-handed
and switch to right-handed as the piece progresses. a brief phrase.
which allows him to prayform from both sides of the instrument. this preoccupation of modern humanity with its historical and existential situation springs from an unconscious sense of its impending end
(McKenna 17).. This can be seen in the numerous
aspects of his daily life.

archetypes. languages. What would later become the world of the Festad grew from these cycles. cultural and sexual diversity. he soon
followed this with the creation of his own world. even for the
so-called changeless. for their
time has come to an end. Wagner spent thirty years on his Ring
cycle. Thoth is bringing into existence a sub-created world he calls “Festad. making way for a new world to come into existence. ﬂourishes and eventually decays over a period
of four ages.” Translated roughly as “Dreamland. The creative cycle will always be the same for Thoth. for it
is in actuality a reﬂection of the artist’s life. Any great work needs such ﬁne-tuning. From their ﬁrst gestation
inside the crystal.”
Thoth ﬂoods his every cell with the ability to bring into existence mythical dimensions willed thru his act of the death dance. Eventually a Mir named Nular-in journeys. Creating his own maps through the inspiration of Tolkien’s. Tolkien labored for over ﬁfteen years on the published version of
The Lord of the Rings alone. to see
how things are affected by cycles. yet he marveled at how Tolkien
utilized them. they are afraid and they behave
in a measure prescribed by this belief to overcome their fears. the death dance takes various cultural forms according to a particular spiritual practice.” the Festad was born from Anya and populated by the Mir who emerge from her
crystallized being. It grows. An example of this would be Tolkien’s elves. In discussing the
194
. and ultimately as the manifested language of Thoth’s
secondary world through sound and tone. as
emanated sound. ancient people and stories. Thoth found Tolkien had the most
completion of any creative world that he knew. These cycles cause change. He recognized the importance of the cycles of our primary world. because these cycles sail across the ocean into a different cycle. Tolkien’s Rings epic was completely his own and had ties to his own ancestral heritage. that see great
change around them and must in the end sail across the ocean. Opening the door to Gurdjeiff ’s “high octave. life began within the image of crystal. Thoth believes
people behave in such cyclical terms as well. their bliss. their All.Middle-earth Minstrel
This all served to educate him on both the masculine and feminine spiritual aspects of his journey. which he found stimulating. In tribal cultures. This beautiful and pristine crystal begins as their Eden.
All of Thoth’s favorite inﬂuential artists embarked on their own journeys as they perfected their work. religion or a cyclical term of it is present.
With this understanding. spins a death dance and destroys the
world. The Mir reﬂect racial.

All things begin to change. 15]. The “opening of a world” might be an exquisitely timed process. religion and language and Ma becomes a control. to
maximize one’s energy. which allows the audience a sense of connected familiarity. true to the Primary world. they soon begin to
break apart and separate. which allow him/her to affect a shift in the planetary age and destroy
the old. or the Ma.
The Land of Ma is the place where the people are born within the
crystal. Yet. learns from mentor. Caguma. Once people of his world emerge..”
but the end of a world. many unify
with a dictator. femininity.
each work containing just enough information and tools for the participant to learn and begin the process of sub-creating. Similar to our society. To some
in the Judeo-Christian world this stage is called “heaven. the basis of Thoth’s solopera. and the opening of the next [Pinchbeck. both
for one’s self and the world. where Nular-in learns what tools are
necessary to reunify their people. is the last age of the Festad. “To Be” fully. Here. is an example of evolutionary cycles: life. death.” All have the
opportunity to live well. many lose the ability to reason.Performance Art in a Tunnel (Burdge)
changing of ages. when nearing death they must manifest their sub-creations and will of being. and warring amongst the people ensue. Such a shift would not be the “end of the world. they become cultists.
195
. The inhabitants of the Festad soon accept their place. Thoth’s world is not Utopian.
and other guides and teachers the divine gifts of world creation and destruction. they too must go through this cycle of living and decay. the Land of Ma
people. rebirth and
the journey toward union. like the stage of fetal development.
The Festad’s ultimate hero/ine Nular-in. during the course of our planet’s life. the moment when one’s intent is pure.. To fully manifest the sub-creation through death.
their troubles soon begin. Daniel
Pinchbeck deﬁnes this process with blinding clarity:
The process of transition from one world to another could be one of simultaneous creation and destruction. What has happened is a twist in focus. yet
not to gain from it. but taking place within
the psyche. The importance of this method lies in actively
connecting to the rhythmic patterns of the world. The Festad is Thoth’s sub-creation. This story.. as Middle-earth is Tolkien’s. It might even be necessary that this process remain shrouded in
mystery until its ﬁnal stage. one must perfect this moment through life by
knowing the evil behaviors of the world and life. worlds. and take part in public service. The Land of Ma becomes their religion and because
there no longer is a Land of Ma.

For those familiar with science
ﬁction or generic fantasy tales. ancient Near Eastern
196
. Thoth
ﬁnds it particularly irritating that the creators of these stories are very good
at everything else. but chose not to adopt it as his own singular style. Thoth found it magniﬁcent and was compelled
to write in this mode. and hearing what he thought as the
emotion and feeling of what the Festad was. which Thoth sings in during each prayformance. The myths and stories of the Festad are ﬁrst sounded out acoustically. the method and not the
feeling. This language can be read and written in a multitude of directions. Eru Ilúvatar and
the Ainur are comparable to many Judeo-Christian.
becoming the sounds. Thoth
felt as though he were enmeshed within a complete Homeric archetype. the early sounds of the
Festad. He did not want to write the
music. which his son
later published posthumously.
For him. Self and Being.
The creative process is a process ongoing throughout life. his work grew beyond any one stylistic pattern of expression. When committing to a style such as the heroic pentameter. for fear of losing the essence of feeling behind the journey. he began to write in a Milton-esque heroic pentameter. later became the CD The Tone Poems of the Festad. Many great epics being
expressed in the pentameter. Yet this was
not his own style. Tolkien
labored until the end of his days on his epic The Silmarillion. yet have no criteria or ready connection for the establishment of their world’s language. becoming written form from its energy. Each bit
of the language is born of sound.
whether it is any one of the compass points or spirally. the languages contained within them are
superﬁcial manifestations of what may sound good to their creators. has allowed the language of the Festad
to ﬂourish. is also a manifested runic system of 252 characters. Tolkien spent his entire life niggling
and tweaking his languages. At the same
time.
which the created world then manifested. the artist
becomes too bound with the style. perfecting them. the formula. The language of the Festad.Middle-earth Minstrel
All of Thoth’s ﬁrst improvised mood music. the music itself. and expanded upon. emanate and expand beyond the original tonal vision. he just tended to admire it above other methods.
the whole feeling of being on a hero’s journey. This method allowed the sound to
ﬂourish. Tolkien’s Silmarillion introduces his creation myth and its own pantheon of Creator and gods. for this should always be the
process of language. Thoth’s own balance of thought. practiced. as concretely as Milton wrote “Paradise Lost” or as Wagner composed his operas.

Anya gives life to
the Festad. The three
pyramids. and writing systems. The pyramids and their spiraling are the template
of these characters as they emerge from Anya.
the people (beings well-balanced in the masculine and feminine principles) and the language to maintain the context of male and female in its
pure form. yet become more technologically-based rather than organically-based and as technology increases. Looking downward into the
pyramids as they spiral. Anya is the masculine and feminine deity who contains the
language in its most pure of forms.
back up the spiral forming each runic character. One can then travel from base to top. the spiraling of birds.
The language within the creation myth. As a language that can be
multidimensional.Performance Art in a Tunnel (Burdge)
and Greek creation myths. for in this purity it can be written with both hands. As Thoth states:
We have technology to do all of these things for us and we lose the simplicity of the line.
and the golden mean. It is also true to dance curves. cited earlier as the Ma
people in a previous incarnation of the myth. when Anya becomes the Ma
Crystal and she spirals out of a pyramid. passive and neutral. With cuneiform you can go from point-to-point. downward. Now we have languages. representing the interconnectivity of past. one must be able to dance the
paths that are formed traversing the letters as well. Within the world of Thoth. Once you begin doing curves with a stone implement it becomes harder
to do than lines. All languages originate from cuneiform. embracing the
active and passive principles as they spiral within it. from
each point you have the meaning of the line. that are less
direct. splinter and separate. migrating to various lands within the Festad. A curvaceous language
represents a loss of the advantages of an organically-based cuneiform language. around the base. It is important for Anya. known as Mir. is then based from these three pyramids spiraling within one another forming a crystalline whole. yet it is more difﬁcult because
a curve is less precise. which in
time they devolve into focusing on the chosen one-sided tool of their land
and their perceptions.
197
. It is only through time that the people veer off.
our language becomes more problematic. also
encompass primarily the concepts of active. The spiral of these pyramids connects to the notion of the DNA strand. The allencompassing circle of neutrality spins about the pyramids. dominant
over each other. present and future. and read
in various modes. the language is seen from a three-dimensional perspective. and their theories all become one-sided. as well as linear in aspect.

and
Odysseus may have indeed been a person at one time.” he
is able to construct a new world for his people. Caguma and others.” which our society
utilizes to indicate individuality.Middle-earth Minstrel
Thoth hopes that this language is a more correct and direct method
of cuneiform. beings begin to emerge. energy and primitive environmental understanding and
connectivity. a symbol and a portion of a language. which
is what occurs with the Mir: they become the abstracted gods of the Festad and its language. that person becomes more abstract. embodied in Zeus. she becomes
the goddess of motherhood.” then emotions. Ma produces feminine femininity. As she grows more distant from the later generations. This principle is key for Anya to dance the spiral to create the
Festad and its people and language. By joining the singular Ma principle with another
the term. never becoming one of the transient parts and seeing all sides.” It is important to look upon these principles to see that all the encompassing parts
ﬂow together. will be the ﬁrst sound. myth. in the sense of thought
begin to put them together. It would be exciting
198
.
As Nular-in has learned from his teachers. This is not a small undertaking. or the last sound on a line of sounds. then the ﬁrst character is connected to the
second and that second one tells us about the sound and it can be in verb form. if one is speaking of the
feminine.
As Anya dances. for Nular-in or the sub-creator. “It all must be danceable.
Up until this point everything “is. The vision of this new world will unify earlier principles
with an understanding that future generations may beneﬁt from their long
dormant capabilities. where it is the more primitive feature for a future yet to be
revealed.
world creation and destruction. the ﬁrst is Ma the epitome of the
feminine. Thoth compares this to the Greco-Roman
gods where the male leadership principle. to reconnect the fragments of language. The ﬁrst character.
obtaining internal and external power tools learning how to “be fully. All the
ﬁrst characters get that position. Achilles. a realization has been brought to light
that indeed this is the path of true human evolution. Over time. As Thoth states:
Within the language there is not contained the word “the.
The Future for Thoth
In speaking to Thoth about his life and the process of sub-creation.

and
sub-creation.
Works Cited
Chance. February 19. 2004. ed.
Glyer. giving some power tools to
teach how to better manifest their sub-created worlds. Shamanism. Drugs. The Archaic Revival: Speculations on Psychedelic Mushrooms. 56. New York: Bantam. 2007. Jesse. Terence.
_____. The Invisible Landscape: Mind. “Race Matters: Overcoming the Hidden Taboos of Crossing the Color
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Huxley. 1990. to
stop the judgments of society from limiting their arts. Evolution.S. then they are indeed worlds waiting to be opened and
should not be bordered by disbelief from a blind society.Performance Art in a Tunnel (Burdge)
to see Thoth bring his insights into the lecture format. power
tools of sub-creation. Thoth and the Power of Presence. . where participants
can bring their sub-created worlds and ﬁnd help creating rituals to manifest them.
_____. N. Jane. CA. The Company They Keep: C. participants would be able to learn to trust their own visions and goals.” Tea Party Magazine. D-1. 65.R Tolkien as Writers in
Community. Through this course of learning the sub-creative process. divine gifts of energy and ancestral messages. Virtual Reality. “In Search of the ‘Berdache’: Multiple Genders and Other Myths. Columbia University. 2006.
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taking part in a course on prayformance. October 2001.
With the insights from Tolkien and Thoth’s methodology.
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End of History. the Rebirth of the Goddess. Spring 1998.C. “S. Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge — A Radical History of Plants. Hallucinogens and the I
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Note: Anthony S. 1991. 47–49. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. The Doors of Perception.K. Aldous. how
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works as ﬁction or fantasy? If these worlds reﬂect and mirror a larger celestial fabric within humanity’s physical being and relate to a Creator on a
microcosmic scale.” New York Post.” San Francisco Chronicle. “Loincloth Maestro. and Thoth
would assist in the ﬁrst dance of that creation. 1992.

developing a full length work on S.
Anthony S. medieval literature. published together with “Music for the Masques” by
Hubert J. founder and chairman of the Northeast Tolkien Society. He is a concert reviewer for San Francisco Classical Voice (www.S.D. “The Bitter and the Sweet. 2006). Tolkien Encyclopedia (Routledge. He publishes in
201
.R. including the bio-bibliographical appendix to The Company
They Keep: C. in library science. Burdge.R.
Bradford Lee Eden is associate university librarian for technical services and
scholarly communication at the University of California.K.sfcv.
Tolkien’s fellow Inkling. is an independent scholar whose studies range from Native American
myth and culture shamanism to the ethnobotanical principles of spiritual
transformation. Foss (Mythopoeic. and creating a collection dedicated to shamanistic explorer Terence
McKenna.R. He
is editor of OCLC Systems & Services: Digital Library Perspectives International
and The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances.
degrees in musicology.org) and has written many articles on Tolkien
and the Inklings. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Diana
Pavlac Glyer (Kent State University Press. Lewis and J.
Thoth.”
focuses on death and dying in The Lord of the Rings. and is associate editor of
Library Hi Tech and The Journal of Film Music.S.
David Bratman edited The Masques of Amen House by Charles Williams.R. and Tolkien studies. as well as an M. Norse mythology. Santa Barbara. Her dissertation. He has master’s and Ph.Contributors
Amy M.
He is a contributor to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature (2006)
and The J. His research entails
the early Native American people and fairy stories of the New York City area
for a historical ﬁction publication. 2000). 2007) and the annual review of “The
Year’s Work in Tolkien Studies” in the annual review Tolkien Studies. Amendt-Raduege is a doctoral candidate in the Department of
English at Marquette University.

in unrelated topics at Kent State University in 1985.
Deanna Delmar Evans holds a Ph. and teaches courses in early and modern Western culture. and he has
presented papers on Tolkien and the Inklings in a variety of academic settings
and conferences.
literature.
Jason Fisher is an independent scholar specializing primarily in J. Oxford. Some of his
recent work includes entries in The J. He is chair of the college’s
Humanities Department. Neophilologus. from Case Western Reserve University
and is professor emerita of English at Bemidji State University. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and
Critical Assessment (Routledge. tending the deep stories that
202
. Tolkien
and Germanic philology (including Old English and Old Norse). the Middle East. 2006) as well as chapters in Tolkien and Modernity (Walking Tree. classical mythology.R. and their modern counterparts.D. and J. She wrote a biography of William Dunbar for the Dictionary of Literary Biography and also for The Companion to Catholic Literature. Minnesota English Journal. and Tolkien.
2007).R. Magistra: A Journal of Women’s Spirituality in History. Old English Newsletter. including his chapter in Tolkien the Medievalist (Routledge. His research interests
include the study of the human body and its representation in Western art.Contributors
the areas of metadata.
drama. and Renaissance.
Medieval Feminist Newsletter. Jensen is an instructor of humanities at William Rainey Harper College in Palatine. where she practices energy medicine.
Darielle Richards is the director of Inner Garden Healing Arts in Salem. phonology. including
The European Sun and Woman and the Feminine in Medieval and Early Modern Scottish Writing.R. and Proceedings of the
Medieval Association of the Midwest. and Truths Breathed Through Silver: The Inklings’ Moral and Mythopoeic
Legacy (Cambridge Scholars.
John R.R. theories of myth in reading Classical epic. music. medieval music and liturgy. North Wind. librarianship. and the use of free will and religion
in Tolkien’s Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. He has also published articles and book
reviews in Tolkien Studies.
Tolkien. The Silmarillion: Thirty Years On (Walking Tree.
Keith W. Illinois. as well as in book collections.D.
Oregon. 2004).
She has published articles in Studies in Scottish Literature. 2008). 2006). and Tolkien at
Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio) ever since he completed his Ph. He has twice taught a
summer tutorial on Tolkien and Old English at the Centre for Medieval and
Renaissance Studies. Holmes has been teaching Old English. Mythlore. and philosophy.R. Minnesota.R.

After 25 years of teaching.
Tolkien. Sturgis routinely speaks at universities.Contributors
inform our lives. She received her doctorate in mythological studies and depth
psychology from Paciﬁca Graduate Institute. With multiple book chapters and articles to her credit. and genre conventions across North America.
Peter Wilkin completed his bachelor of arts (honors) at the University of
Sydney in 2007. She is the
author of four books and the editor of four books. having written his honors thesis on Tolkien’s treatment of
the Fall of Man in The Notion Club Papers. In 2006.R. Sturgis earned her Ph.
Amy H.R. she received the
Imperishable Flame Award for Tolkien/Inklings Scholarship.D. conferences. especially in regards to the
Númenor story. as well as the tradition of the Magus beginning with early Greek and
Persian eras.
203
. her
research centers on the mythic imagination and the creative process of J. in intellectual history from Vanderbilt University and teaches interdisciplinary studies at Belmont University. He is undertaking research into
Platonic inﬂuences on Tolkien’s legendarium.